
Class J-i 105 
Book_.Fi^ 

Gopyiigntlv? 

COFVRIQHT DEPOsm 



MODERN HISTORY: 

FROM THE ■ ' '■ ■ ■ ■ ' " ' ■ ' 

COMING OF CHRIST 

AND THE 

Cljange of i\)t Eoman H^publtc into an Empire, 



YEAR OF ODR LORD 184S. 

By peter FREDET, D.D. 

PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN ST. MARY'S COLLEGE, BALTIMORE. 

HistOTia testis temponira, lux veritatis, vita memoriae, magistra vitae, nuntia 
vetustatis.— Cicer. lih. ii. <fe Orai,. n. ix, 



VOLUME I. 



BALTIMORE: 

PRINTED BY JOHN MURPHY 

146 MARKET STREET. 
MDCCCXLII. 



Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year eighteen hundred and 
forty-two, by Louis Regis Deluol, in the Clerk's office, of the District Court 
of Maryland. 






// 












PREFACE 



X 



The utility of History as a branch of public and private 
instruction has always been admitted. Cicero calls it "the 
witness of ages, the torch of truth, the life of the memory, 
the oracle of life, the interpreter of the past," and does 
not hesitate to say, that " To be ignorant of what has hap- 
pened before one's birth, is nothing less than to remain 
in a continual state of childhood." (Cicer. in orat. n. 
xxxiv). Plutarch informs us that Cato the Censor, M^hose 
name and eminent qualities reflected so much honor upon 
the last days of the Roman Republic, composed for his 
infant son, and, with his own hand, wrote in large charac- 
ters, a description of remarkable actions taken from the 
lives of illustrious Romans; in order, said he, that this 
child might be enabled, from his very infancy, and with- 
out leaving the'paternal roof, to become acquainted with 
the great men of his country, and to imitate those ancient 
models of probity and virtue. 

History is an immense repository, whence we may, 
with little labor, derive extensive knowledge, and draw 
many instructive and useful lessons; nor is there any 
study (except that of Religion) better calculated to im- 
prove all the faculties of the soul. By its means, the me- 
mory is furnished with a multitude of interesting events; 
the judgment continually improves, from the assiduous 
attention which is given to objects well deserving of 
notice; and experience, so necessary in life, is easily ac- 



IV PREFACE. 

quired, because we appropriate to ourselves that of others, 
and become wise at their expense. History conduces also 
wonderfully to the improvement of the heart. Every 
where it affords moral examples adapted to the different 
stations and conditions of social life. Every where it 
presents to our imitation models of courage, of patriotism, 
probity, disinterestedness, generous sentiments and heroic 
actions. Its pages, indeed, are frequently filled with the 
narrative of various crimes, but these it mentions only to 
inspire us with horror for them, and to convince every 
one that unruly passions, besides degrading humanity, 
generally prove the cause of the subversion of empires, not 
less than of the ruin of private individuals and families. 

History gives us another very important instruction, in 
the continual change and succession of kingdoms and 
empires. There we behold the all-wise and powerful Pro- 
vidence of God displaying itself in the course of human 
aft'airs; sometimes granting to his people good and vir- 
tuous rulers; at other times, permitting political storms 
to burst forth, wars to rage, and wicked men to reign for 
the chastisement of nations ; then deriving good from evil, 
and secretly, though not less effectually, regulating all 
events, even those in which our limited reason can per- 
ceive only the agency of creatures. Thus we are taught 
to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, to 
refer every prosperous effect to Him, as its only real 
and independent cause, and to expect from Him alone a 
lasting happiness. 

These advantages are to be found chiefly in Modern 
History, which extending to many more countries than 
the history of former ages, presents us with more numer- 
ous and remarkable instances of the eftects of divine jus- 



PREFACE. V 

tice upon kings and nations. It likewise abounds, much 
more than the periods long since past, in heroic deeds, 
and, including the times of the Christian era, exhibits a 
much greater multitude of personages worthy of being 
proposed as models of virtue, than could ever be afforded 
by the ancient Greeks and Romans. Hence, Modern 
History, though generally little known, should be consid- 
ered as peculiarly important and useful: not indeed, as 
we find it in the works of many recent authors, such as 
Hume, Gibbon, and others, whose partiality, prejudice, or 
even irreligion, appears in almost every page of their 
works ; but as it ought to be presented to the reader, in a 
spirit of candor and impartiality, after a sincere and dili- 
gent research on the part of the writer. 

The present course includes all the time w^hich has 
elapsed from the coming of Christ, and even from the bat- 
tle of Actium (b. c. 31), to the age in which we live. 
Although a shorter duration than this is commonly, though 
arbitrarily, assigned to Modern History, we have thought 
proper to refer its beginning to the memorable epoch 
termed in the Scripture the fulness of times, (Ephes. i. JO), 
and nearly coinciding with the change of the Roman Re- 
public into an Empire after the battle of Actium. We 
have thus, in reckoning from the dispersion of the sons 
of Noah, a very natural division of Universal History 
into two nearly equal portions, the one before, the other 
after the coming of Christ; and whilst we take a view 
of the civilized world during the last eighteen hundred 
years, we also perceive the connexion which it had with 
the Christian Church from her foundation. 

To treat of each nation separately, is not the object of 
the present work; we are not writing a collection of par- 
1* 



VI PREFACE. 

ticular histories, but a general one : nor, on the other hand, 
is it our intention to confine ourselves, as is too frequently 
done, to a meagre outline of names, dates and facts, without 
mentioning their necessary circumstances ; but, by select- 
ing from the best historians of the different nations, what- 
ever is most important and worthy of notice, to present, as 
far as possible, a detailed and connected view of the whole. 
Nothing more can be reasonably expected from an element- 
ary course of this class : if it omits no essential fact or cir- 
cumstance, and, at the same time, does not impede the pro- 
gress of the narrative by introducing numberless events 
of secondary importance, surely nothing more can be de- 
sired in this respect, either for instruction or amusement. 
There is no other means of imparting, in an interesting 
manner, a sufficient knowledge of History. Should any 
disadvantage occasionally arise from this plan, it will be 
compensated by synoptical and chronological tables; and, 
moreover, facts of an extraordinary nature, or which have 
been commonly misrepresented in modern publications, 
wnll be illustrated by notes placed at the end of each 
volume. 

As a conclusion of these preliminary remarks, and an 
immediate introduction to Modern History, some idea 
must be given of the political disturbances which so long 
agitated ancient Rome, and terminated in the destruction 
of the Commonwealth. 

The Romans, by their invincible patience and constancy 
during seven hundred years, had conquered almost the 
whole of the then known world; viz. Italy, Gaul, Spain, 
Africa, Egypt, Syria, Asia Minor, Greece, Hiyria, etc. 
But, at the same time, all kinds of vices were introduced. 
Love of country and respect for the laws were gradually 



PREFACE. VII 

superseded by luxury, avarice, intrigues, and an almost 
universal corruption. Public employments and dignities, 
the emoluments of which had increased, were solicited 
with extraordinary avidity ; ambitious candidates sought 
only to flatter the people ; and generals of the same cha- 
racter strained every nerve to gain the troops over to their 
party, even resorting to extravagant promises and presents. 

Sylla, having obtained, after his great victories, the 
Dictatorship for life, proved to the world that Rome could 
endure a master. Like him, Pompey and Julius Caesar 
successively rendered themselves all-powerful. The vio- 
lent death of the latter, who was slain in the Senate, 
augmented, instead of lessening the evil. There were 
now three competitors for the supreme power: Antony, 
Lepidus, and the young Octavius, grand-nephew and 
adopted son of Caesar. During their triumvirate, all in 
Rome who were most remarkable for their courage and 
their opposition to tyranny, were destroyed : Cicero was 
put to death; Brutus and Cassius were defeated at Phi- 
lippi ; and with them expired the liberty of the Roman 
people. 

Octavius and Antony, having removed the feeble Le- 
pidus, made various agreements respecting the division 
of power; the young Csesar, more dexterous than his 
colleague, always found means to obtain the better share, 
gained the popular favor in Rome, and rapidly advanced 
to the sovereign authority. Antony, in his attempts to 
repair his losses, engaged in a new civil war, which served 
only to accelerate his utter ruin. His defeat in the battle 
of Actium, and his death which followed soon after, left 
Octavius undisputed master. This memorable event, 
which took place in the year 722 after the building of 



VIII PREFACE. 

Rome, and thirty-one before the coming of Christ, brings 
us to the beginning of our course of Modern History, 
which includes eight parts or epochs, in the following 
order : 

The first part comprises the time which elapsed from 
the battle of Actium (b. c. 31), to the accession of Con- 
stantine (a. d. 306) ; including 337 years. 

The 2d from the accession of Constantine 

(a. d. 306), to the fall of the Roman Empire in the West 
(a. d. 476); 170 years. 

The 3d from the fall of the Roman Empire in 

the West (a. d. 476), to its revival under Charlemagne 
(a. d. 800) ; 324 years. 

The 4th from the revival of the Western Em- 
pire under Charlemagne (a. d. 800), to the beginning of 
the Crusades, (a. d. 1095) ; 295 years. 

The 5th from the beginning of the Crusades 

(a. d. 1095), to their termination (a. d. 1272) ; 177 

years. 

The 6th from the end of the Crusades 

(a. D. 1272), to the discovery of America (a. d. 1492); . . . 
220 years. 

The 7th from the discovery of America 

(a. d. 1492), to the Treaty of Paris, in which the Inde- 
pendence of the United States was solemnly acknow- 
ledged (a. d. 1783) ; 291 years. 

The 8th from the Treaty of Paris (a. n. 1785;, 

to A. D. 1842 ; 59 vears. 



CONTENTS 



OF THE FIRST VOLUME, 



PART I 



FROM THE BATTLE OF ACTIUM (B 
CONSTANTINE 

Page 

Roman- Empire, 13 

Augustus, lb. 

Tiberius, 26 

Caligula, 41 

Claudius, 44 

Nero, 48 

Galba— Otho— Vitellius, 56 

Vespasian, 62 

Titus, 71 

Domitian, 74 

Nerva — Trajan, 77 

Adrian, 80 

Antoninus Pius, 86 

Marcus Aurelius, 89 

Commodus — Pertinax — Didi- 
us Julianus, 91 



. C. 31), TO THE accession OF 

(a. d. 306). 

Page 

Septimius Severus, 9'^ 

Caracalla — Macrinus — Helio- 

gabalus, 103 

Alexander Severus 104 

Military Usurpers, 110 

Claudius II, 114 

Aurelian, 1 15 

Interregnum — Tacitus, 120 

Probus, ib. 

Carus, with his two sons, Ca- 

rinus and Numerian, 122 

Diocletian and Maximian ; af- 
terwards Constantius Chlo- 
rus and Galerius, 123 



PART II. 

FROM THE ACCESSION OF CONSTANTINE (A. V. 306), TO THE DOWN- 
FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE WEST (A. D. 476). 

Page Page 

Constantine the Great, 131 Jovian, 151 

Constantius and his brothers Valentinian and Valens, 152 

Constantine II and Con- Theodosius the Great — Gra- 

stans, 143 tian and Valentinian II, . . . 155 

Julian, 146 



CONTENTS. 



Page 

Honorius and Arcadius, 164 

Valentinian III, in the West; 
in the East, Theodosius II, 
or the Youno;er, 169 



Page 
Marcian— Leo the Thracian, 
in the East — Last period 
and fall of the Western 
Empire, 177 



PART III 



TROM THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE WEST (A. D. 476), 
TO ITS REVIVAL UNDER CHARLEMAGNE (A. D. 800). 



Page 
Foundation of the principal 
and most celebrated States 

of Europe, 182 

Anglo-Saxons in Great Bri- 
tain — Hengist, ib. 

Visigoths in Spain — Evaric,..184 

Franks in Gaul — Clovis, 185 

Ostrogoths in Italy — Theodo- 

ric the Great, 188 

Emperors of Constantino- 
ple, 192 

Justin I, ib. 

Glorious reign of Justinian,. .194 

Justin II— Tiberius II, 206 

Mauritius, 212 

Phocas, 217 

Heraclius, , 218 

Rise of Mahometanism, 222 

Progress of Mahometanism. .225 
Conquest of the Saracens in 
Syria, Palestine and Meso- 
potamia, ib. 



Page 

Conquest of the Saracens in 
Egypt, 228 

in Persia, Rhodes and 

other countries, 231 

Dissensions among the Sara- 
cens, 234 

Prosperity of the Greek em- 
pire under Constantine Po- 
gonatus, 235 

Conquest of the Saracens in 
Africa, 237 

in Spain, 242 

Saracens defeated in the East 
— Leo the Isaurian, 244 

Saracens defeated in France — 
Charles Martel, 245 

Pepin, king of France, 248 

Charlemagne, king of France 
and Lombardy, 252 

Remarks on the state of civil- 
ization, learning and reli- 
gion, during the third part 
of modern history, 259 



CONTENTS. 



XI 



PART IV. 

FROM THE REVIVAL OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE (A. D. 800), TO THE 
BEGINNING OF THE CRUSADES, (A. D. 1095). 



Page 

Charlemagne, Emperor, 265 

Lewis, the Debonnaire and 

his Sons, 268 

Arabian and Greek Empires 

during the ninth century, . . 270 
Spain during the ninth and 

tenth centuries, 277 

England during the ninth and 

tenth centuries, 282 

France and Germany in the 

tenth century, 289 



Page 
Eastern nations in the tenth 

and eleventh centuries, .... 293 
Danish kings in England — 

Saxon line restored, 297 

Normans in England — Wil- 
liam the Conqueror, 300 

Normans in Italy, 305 

Chivalry, particularly in Spain 
— Rise of the kingdom of 

Portugal, 306 

Affair of Investitures, 308 

Remarksonthe Middle Ages,.311 



NOTES. 

Page 

Note A. — On the Character and Death of Seneca, Lucan, etc 319 

B.— On the Historian Josephus, 321 

C. — On the Number of Martyrs, during the general perse- 
cutions of the Church, 323 

D. — On the attempt of the Emperor Julian to rebuild the 

Temple of Jerusalem, 328 

E. — On Mahomet's pretended Miracles, 331 

F. — On the Answer of Pope Zachary to a consultation of 

the French, 333 

G. — On the Temporal Dominion of the Pope, 3.34 

H.— On the Popes of the Middle Ages, 336 

Tables of Contemporary Sovereigns, 342 

Chronological Table, 347 

Table of A uthors, 353 



ERRATUM. 
Page 115, line 7, for Roman read Gothic. 



MODERN HISTORY. 



PART I. 



FROM THE BATTLE OF ACTIUM (B. C. 31), TO THE ACCESSION OF 
CONSTANTINE, (A.D.306). 



ROMAN EMPIRE. 

AUGUSTUS.— B. c. 31. a. d. 14. 

On his return to Home, after the battle of Actium, Octa- 
vius, afterwards called Augustus, deliberated whether he 
should abdicate or retain the almost unlimited power 
which he possessed. He felt more inclined to the latter 
measure ; but his mind was a prey to fear and anxiety, 
when he considered the love of the Roman people for 
liberty, and the danger to which, by preserving the su- 
preme authority in his own hands, he would be unavoida- 
bly exposed. 

To act the more prudently in a matter of such impor- 
tance, he caused the alternative to be discussed in his 
presence by his two dearest and most trusty friends, 
Agrippa, a celebrated warrior, and Maecenas^ a profound 
politician. Dion Cassius the historian, has transmitted 
to us the contradictory advice of these two great men. 
Agrippa first delivered his opinion, and, though a rela- 
tive of Augustus, and the chief instrument of his victo- 
ries, openly declared for a generous abdication of the 
supreme power into the hands of the senate and people* 
He represented the great danger of attempting to govern, 
in the capacity of sovereign, men born and raised in 
a Republic ; nor did he fail to insist on the striking pre- 
cedent of Julius CfEsar, who, a few years before, had 
been killed in the senate, for hazarding a similar project. 
2 



14 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part 



Maecenas was of a different opinion : to him the scheme 
of abdication appeared more brilliant than prudent; and 
he strenuously maintained that it would prove fatal to all 
parties. Were Augustus to descend to the condition of 
private life, his death would be sought and easily procured 
by his enemies; while, on the other hand, considering 
the violent storms which had lately shaken the republic, 
and looking over the broad extent of the Roman do- 
minions, it was evident that Rome could no longer sub- 
sist without a monarch. 

Augustus having patiently heard his friends, and thanked 
them for their advice, determined to follow the opinion of 
Maecenas, without entirely rejecting that of Agrippa. He 
accordingly retained the sovereign power, but would not 
assume the title and insignia of a king, contenting him- 
self with the name of emperor (imperator), then the usual 
appellation of commanders of armies. His object was to 
effect a real change, and yet apparently to preserve the 
ancient form of government. The consuls and other 
public officers were appointed as regularly as before, and 
although subordinate and accountable to Augustus, exer- 
cised the same functions which they had to perform in the 
days of the Commonwealth. He also divided the pro- 
vinces between himself and the Senate, to which body he 
assigned the nearest, as being the most peaceable ; but 
reserved for himself such as were more exposed to the 
attacks of an enemy. He thus concentrated in himself 
the whole military power, holding the command of the 
standing troops, who were stationed in those provinces 
only which were liable to invasion. 

Notwithstanding the doubtful nature of these measures, 
truly beneficial to the Romans was the use which Augus- 
tus made of his great authority. *' After twenty years 
continuance," says Velleius Paterculus, " the civil con- 
tests ended, foreign wars ceased, peace was re-established, 
hostilities were every where quelled; vigor was restored 
to the laws, authority to the tribunals. . . The fields 



l:l\u: AUGUSTUS. 15 

were again cultivated ; sacred things were respected, and 
the lives and property of the citizens placed in a state 
of security."* Nor did Rome and Italy alone reap 
the fruits of these happy improvements. The several 
provinces, before distracted by civil wars, or plundered 
and harassed by the avidity of their governors, now be- 
gan to recover from all those evils, and to enjoy their for- 
mer prosperity. 

No sooner did Augustus see his authority well estab- 
lished in the Capital, than he set out (b. c. 27), to visit 
the various parts of the Empire, Gaul, Spain, Greece, 
Asia Minor, Syria, etc. Residing in each for some time, 
he regulated the government, enacted suitable laws, and 
applied himself particularly to the repression of licenti- 
ousness, which he, although his own conduct was not 
blameless, justly considered as one of the greatest evils 
of the state. 

The progress of science and literature formed one of 
the principal objects of his attention. Cicero, Sallust, 
and Cornelius Nepos having been, a short time before, 
snatched away by death, Augustus endeavored to repair 
this loss, by encouraging the genius of others so as to 
make them contend successfully wdth the Greek writers 
in eloquence and poetry. Such especially were Virgil, 
Horace, Ovid and Livy ; all of whom enjoyed the unin- 
terrupted favor of Augustus, except however the poet 
Ovid, who, having been a witness of some shameful dis- 
orders in the Emperor's family, was, on that account, 
banished to Tomos, a town of Scythia near the Euxine 
Sea, where he ended his life the same day on which Livy 
died at Padua (a. d. 17). Livy left a complete history 
of Rome, from its foundation to his own time, consisting 
of 140 books, most of which are lost ; yet, the few which 

* Finita vicesimo anno hella civilia, sepiilta externa, revocata pax, 
sopitus ubique annorum furor; restituta vis legibus, judiciis auctoritas. 
. . . . Rediit cultus agris, sacris honos, securitas hominibus, certa 
cuique rerum suarum possessio. — Veil. Paterc. Hist., part 2d. 



16 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part I. 



have been preserved, are sufficient to place their author 
in the first rank of historians, particularly for his noble 
and elegant style. Horace died almost suddenly, in the 
56th year of his age (b. c. 8). Yirgil having gone to 
Greece, where he expected to procure the proper informa- 
tion and tranquillity necessary for the completion of his 
jEneid, was prevailed upon to return with Augustus to 
Rome. Although laboring under indisposition, he em- 
barked on the Adriatic ; the navigation augmented the 
violence of his disease, and he expired on his arrival at 
Brundusium, at the age of 51 years (b. c. 19). His re- 
mains were interred at Naples, and on his tomb was 
placed the following epitaph composed, it is believed, by 
himself: it contains, in two verses, the place of his birth, 
that of his death and burial, and the subjects of his various 
poems : 

I sung flocks, tillage, heroes ; Mantua gave | 

Me life, Brundusium death, Naples a grave.* 

Virgil, not having had time to give the last touch to'his 
principal poem, commanded just before his death, that it 
should be cast into the flames ; but this rigorous order, 
happily for literature, was not executed. Augustus, be- 
sides preventing its destruction, took care that nothing 
should be added to the work, a circumstance which ac- 
counts for the many unfinished verses found in the 
^neid. Its author is justly looked upon as the prince 
of Latin poets. He was moreover skilled in mathe- 
matics, geography, natural and moral philosophy ; and, 
what is still more admirable, amidst the general esteem 
in which he was held for his talents, he always preserved a 
modest deportment ; he was plain in his manners, even at 
court, and pure in his morals, even in the most corrupt of 



* Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere, tenet nunc 
Parthenope ; cecini pascua, rura, duces. 



l\l]l\\ ' AUGUSTUS. 17 

The wisdom of Augustus was like an abundant spring 
whence happiness flowed without interruption, spread- 
ing itself over every portion of the world and through 
every class of society. Governing others, as he himself 
would have wished to be governed, he marked all the 
years of his reign by numerous acts of wise and prudent 
administration. His behavior towards the senate and the 
people exhibited a happy mixture of condescension and 
firmness. When deliberating on public affairs, he was 
not oflfended at seeing his opinions strenuously opposed. 
When inclined to anger, his custom was, either to 
leave the company for a moment, or, in compliance 
witli an advice which he had received from the philoso- 
pher Athenodorus, to repress the feelings of nature, be- 
fore saying or doing any thing. With regard to the 
people in general, he was studious to conciliate their 
favor by public exhibitions and largesses; and the Ro- 
mans saw, with the utmost pleasure, not only abundance 
and security completely restored among them under his 
government, but their city also wonderfully embellished 
by his orders and care. According to his own expression, 
" He found it of brick, and left it of marble;" nor did 
he trespass on the rights of the inhabitants, preferring to 
leave some works unfinished or imperfect, rather than 
encroach upon the property of others. 

Equally admirable was the conduct of Augustus to- 
wards particular persons. He excused the senators from 
all troublesome ceremonials, and would not suifer them 
to wait upon him at the palace, in order to conduct him 
to the senate -house: here he received their compliments 
and returned their salutations, calling them by their 
names. Nor did he extend this mildness and affability 
to senators only, or to persons of distinction ; he per- 
mitted all to approach him, and was accessible even to 
the citizens of the lowest classes, receiving their petitions 
with kindness, and encouraging those whom reverential 
awe rendered timid and bashful. 
2* 



18 MODERN HISTORY. Parti. 

Very many Instances are related of his moderation and 
clemency towards those who behaved disrespectfully in 
his regard. The following one will suffice. As he was 
making preparations for a journey, a senator, named 
Kufus, said at an entertainment : " I Avish that Augus- 
tus may never come back again ;" and jesting about the 
number of victims which were usually sacrificed in thanks- 
giving for the emperor's return, he added that all the oxen 
and calves entertained the same wish. These words were 
carefully treasured up by some of the guests. The next 
day a slave of Rufus reminded his master of what he had 
said when heated with wine, and advised him to go and 
be the first to declare his fault to the emperor. Rufus 
followed the advice. He hastened to the palace, presented 
himself before Augustus, and attributing his conduct of 
the previous day to a fit of madness, begged him to for- 
give his foolish temerity. Augustus granted his demand. 
*' Caesar," said Rufus, "no one will believe that you 
have restored me to your friendship, unless you make 
me a handsome present." The prince granted this also, 
adding with a smile : " For my own sake, I will take 
care not to be angry with you in future." 

However, Augustus did not always suffer the odious 
imputations cast upon his character to pass unnoticed. 
A proper care of his reputation often induced him to repel 
them, either by discourses delivered in the senate, or by 
declarations publicly made in his name. But he was a 
stranger to revenge. Tiberius, who succeeded him, and 
who was of a very different character, having once exhorted 
liim to punish an insult, Augustus replied: ** My dear 
Tiberius, do not abandon yourself too much to the viva- 
city of your age, and be not so indignant at those who 
speak ill of me ; it is enough to prevent them from doing 
us any harm." 

Who would imagine that a man of such mildness and 
moderation had, in his youth, shed so much blood, and 
committed so many cruelties ^ This change in Augustus, 
though springing perhaps from interested views, cannot but 



^:^;JJ: AUGUSTUS. 19 

appear truly astonishing. Examples may be found of a good 
natural disposition corrupted by constant prosperity, and 
especially by unlimited power ; but to find, in such cir- 
cumstances, bad qualities removed, and succeeded by 
noble and generous feelings, is extremely rare. 

A government so mild, and possessing so many advan- 
tages both for the state and for private citizens, excited 
a general esteem and love for its wise reo;ulator. Even 
when he proposed to the senate, with more policy than 
sincerity, the resignation of his power, the senators, 
either through a dread of new evils, or through attach- 
ment to his person, entreated him to continue in the pos- 
session of the supreme authority. He had, or pretended 
to have the modesty to accept it only for ten years ; but 
it was successively bestowed upon him for ten more, when 
that term had elapsed. 

Still more honorable for Augustus was the manner in 
which he received, in compliance with the desire of the 
whole nation, the title of Father of his country, a title so 
eminently glorious when truly merited. At first, the 
people offered it to the emperor by a solemn embassy ; 
Augustus having refused, all the inhabitants of Rome 
insisted, and with unanimous acclamations earnestly 
begged that it should be accepted. In fine, the senators 
agreed among themselves to make a last effort ; and one 
of their number, Messala, in the name of all, addressed 
Auo;ustus in these terms: "Caesar, the senate too;ether 
with the Roman people proclaim you the Father of the 
country." The emperor, moved even to tears, answered : 
'* Senators, having reached the summit of my wishes, 
what else can I ask of the immortal gods, than that I 
should always deserve and obtain from you the aftection- 
ate sentiments which you have just expressed ?"* This 
was truly the happiest day of his life. 

* Caesar Auguste, senatus consentiens cum populo Romano, te consa- 
lutat patriae patrem. Cui lacrymans respondit Augustus his verbis : 
Compos factus votorum meorum, P, C, quid habeo aliud Deos immor- 
tales precari, quam ut hunc consensum vestrum ad ultimum vitae linem 
milii perferre liceat? Sueion. in August. 



20 MODERN HISTORY. pani. 

Still, as there are always some discontented persons, 
even under the most moderate governments, Augustus 
was not secure from secret conspiracies. He showed 
himself inexorable in the punishment of the first offenders, 
Ignatius Rufus, Murena and Cepion ; but he pursued a 
different course in the case of Cinna, a grand-son of 
Pompej, whose party many persons of high standing had 
joined. The emperor was informed of the bold design 
by one of the accomplices, and this information threw 
him into the greatest perplexity. Must he again shed 
torrents of blood, or would it be more expedient to for- 
give ? This alternative was the subject of a conversa- 
tion between him and his wife Livia, and to the empress 
is attributed the honor of having induced her husband to 
lean to the side of clemency. His resolution being 
formed, he sent for Cinna, named in his presence all the 
conspirators, whose leader he was, and showed himself 
perfectly acquainted with the manner, time and place 
which they had appointed. Cinna was thunderstruck ; 
but greater yet was his surprise, when Augustus, after 
enumerating the benefits he had conferred upon him, add- 
ed : ** Cinna, I forgave you once, when you were found 
in the camp of my enemies ; I now pardon you a second 
time, after you have attempted to be my murderer. Let 
us become sincere friends, and by our future conduct to- 
wards each other, make it doubtful which is greater, my 
generosity or your gratitude." 

With such noble language Augustus united equally 
generous proceedings. He nominated Cinna consul for 
the ensuing year, and gave him many other marks of par- 
ticular affection. In return, Cinna became the faithful 
friend of his sovereign, and was ever afterwards invio- 
lably attached to his interests. The emperor derived a 
still more valuable advantage from his clemency on this 
occasion ; it completed his popularity in Rome, and from 
that time effectually prevented conspiracies against his 
person and authority. 



l:l\l\: AUGUSTUS. 21 

The most memorable event during the reign of this 
prince, was the birth of our Savior. Augustus uninten- 
tionally contributed to the accomplishment of the designs 
of Heaven on this point : as he had issued a decree that 
the whole world should be enrolled, every one in his own 
city, the Blessed Virgin was obliged to go with St. Joseph 
from Nazareth to Bethlehem, a little town of the tribe of 
Juda.* There, as the Prophet Micheas had foretold!, the 
Son of God was born, and commenced the work of our 
redemption, about 4000 years after the creation of the 
world, 753 after the building of Rome, 31 after the foun- 
dation of the empire. 

The birth of Christ coincided with the very uncommon 
circumstance that the temple of Janus was shut ; this was 
the case only during a universal peace. From Romulus 
to Augustus, an interval of 700 years, it had been shut 
only twice : first, during the reign of Numa, and a second 
time, between the first and second Punic wars. The 
tranquillity which the world now enjoyed, was a figure of 
that spiritual peace which the eternal Son of God had come 
to impart to mankind. 

This tranquillity originated chiefly in the moderation 
of Augustus. No sooner did he find himself without a 
competitor in Rome, than his views became wholly pacific. 
He never undertook a war except through necessity, and 
when the advantages expected from it far exceeded the 
loss that might be feared. His usual saying was, that 
they who, without hesitation, purchase small advantages 
by running great risks, resemble a man fishing with a 
golden hook, the value of which far exceeded that of all 
the fish he might hope to catch. On the same principle, 
he frequently blamed Alexander for having continually 
sought to extend his empire by warfare, rather than govern 
it in peace, and watch over its internal prosperity. 

Still, Augustus was compelled to engage in several 

* Luke, ii. 1, 3, etc. ■ f Micheas, r. 2. 



22 MODERN HISTORY. p^rt i. 

wars, most of which became successful through the ability 
of his generals. The Cantabrians in Spain were defeated 
bj Agrippa. Tiberius repressed the rebels of Dalmatia 
and Pannonia, subdued the Rhetians in despite of their 
mountains, and humbled the pride of Maroboduus, a pow- 
erful king of the Marcomans ; whilst his brother Drusus, 
a young hero, made four glorious campaigns in the heart 
of Germany, and extended his conquests as far as the 
river Elbe. The Roman arms were every where respected : 
the Parthians returned the prisoners and colors that had 
been in their possession since the defeat of Crassus (b. c. 
53); and the nations of India sought, through embassies, 
the alliance and friendship of Augustus. 

These brilliant successes were followed by a disaster, 
the more grievous to the prince and to the people, as it 
was quite unexpected. Quintilius Varus, who commanded 
in Germany five Roman legions (about 25,000 men), and 
some auxiliary troops, gradually rendered himself odious 
to the inhabitants by his love for money and great extor- 
tions. His imprudence soon caused his complete over- 
throw. He obstinately refused to give ear to the warn- 
ings which he received of a threatened insurrection, and 
was even prevailed upon by Arminius, a young German 
prince whose fidelity he did not suspect, to divide his 
army into several separate bodies, and to station them 
in different quarters. These scattered troops were 
easily destroyed by the natives, and the revolt became 
general. At length, the Roman general, aware of his 
danger, hastened with three legions to subdue the rebels ; 
but he imprudently suffered himself to be blocked up be- 
tween woods and marshes ; Arminius, with all the forces' 
he could collect, attacked him during the night and amidst 
the horrors of a violent storm. The Romans fought 
bravely, but in vain; they were cut to pieces together 
with their commander and officers, and but very few es- 
caped to carry back the tidings of the defeat (a. d. 9). 

Never was Augustus so much afflicted at the news of 



I'd! 14! AUGUSTUS. 23 

any misfortune. When he was apprised of the event, he 
rent his garments in excess of grief, and was often heard 
to cry out : ** Varus, restore me my legions." He feared 
moreover that the Germans would pursue their victory, 
invade Italy and attack Rome itself: but the danger was 
not so great as had been imagined, and the following year, 
Tiberius easily checked the progress of the enemy. 

Another source of grief for Augustus, in his advanced 
age, was the misconduct of some of his children and grand- 
children, whom he was obliged to send into exile. The 
death of those around him, in whom he had placed all his 
confidence, such as Agrippa and Maecenas, and whom he 
expected to be the future support of his throne and family, 
likewise pressed heavily upon him. Drusus, his step-son, 
was taken off in the midst of his victorious career: !Mar- 
cellus, his nephew and son-in-law, died at a premature 
age; as did also Caius and Lucius Ceesar, the emperor's 
grand-sons, children of Agrippa. 

Next to Augustus, Agrippa was beyond dispute the first 
man of his age, great in peace and in war, illustrious in the 
field and in the cabinet. Sicily, Greece, Germany, Gaul 
and Spain, were successively the theatres of his military 
achievements. In time of peace, his mind was ever oc- 
cupied with grand and noble designs all tending to the 
public good ; and he has rendered his name immortal bv 
works far surpassing in splendor and magnificence those 
of any other private individual. Qualified to hold the first 
rank in a republic, he contented himself with the second 
under Augustus, who made him his son-in-law, colleague, 
and intended successor. 

The intimacy of their friendship reflects equal honor 
on both. Agrippa obtained the favor of Augustus with- 
out mean condescension and flattery ; and Augustus, 
without either distrust, or jealousy of Agrippa's conspicu- 
ous merit, raised him almost to an equality with himself. 
After the death of so faithful a friend, he honored his re- 
mains by magnificent obsequies, at which he himself pro- 



24 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part I. 



nounced the funeral oration, and, as he had been so closely 
attached when living, to his person and family, he would 
not suffer him to be laid in any other tomb than that des- 
tined for himself. 

Maecenas too, although indolent with regard to his own 
affairs and person, was an able minister, who united a 
superior mind with beneficence and modesty. He always 
endeavored to procure the advantage of others, and on 
the contrary never availed himself of the emperor's friend- 
ship to promote his own interest. To him and to his con- 
stant protection are science and literature principally 
indebted for the high degree of perfection which they 
attained under the reign of Augustus. 

Drusus, as we have already said, conquered a great 
part of Germany. As a Roman, no one ever surpassed 
him in noble and generous feelings ; as a general, he was 
equalled, in that age, only by Agrippa and his own son 
Germanicus. 

In fine, Marcellus, a young prince possessed of uncom- 
mon talents, and still more admirable for his moral vir- 
tues, was, in every respect, deserving of his high rank 
and fortune. He had already acquired general esteem, 
was the hope of the Romans and the pride of his uncle 
Augustus, when death exhibited in his person a new in- 
stance of the frailty of human grandeur. This made 
Virgil say in the 6th book of his ^neid : 

" This youth, the blissful vision of a day, 

Shall be just shown on earth, and snatched away."— Z)?T/dm.* 

And again, after alluding to the great hero of the same 
name, conspicuous in the second Punic war : 

" Ah ! couldst thou break through fate's severe decree, 
A new Marcellus would arise in thee."t 

These beautiful verses, when first publicly recited, drew 

* Ostendent terris hunc tantum fata, neque ultra 

Esse sinent. 
t Heu, miserande puer ! si qua fata aspera rmnpa?, 

Tu Marcellus eris. 



l:l:l\[ AUGUSTUS. 25 

tears from all who heard them, and particularly touched 
Augustus and his sister Octavia, the young prince's 
mother, who remained inconsolable till death. 

Thus the emperor was compelled to centre, if not all 
his affection, at least all his expectation in Tiberius. He 
now chose him for his colleague and successor, as the 
only one whom he knew truly capable of upholding the 
Empire. He himself, however, did not entirely withdraw 
from the cares of government, a burden always agree- 
able to his ambition. Even, when his health was decli- 
ning, his mind continued ever busy and active. At length, 
whilst travelling through the south of Italy, on his way 
from Beneventum to Rome, he fell dangerously ill, and 
could not proceed beyond Nola in Campania. When he 
saw that the end of his life was near, he ordered a look- 
ing glass to be brought to him, and his hair to be dressed ; 
then called in his friends, and asked them if they thought 
he had well played his part in the drama of life. Being 
answered in the affirmative, he cried out in a Greek verse 
with which the ancient plays generally terminated : " Give 
me then your applause." Thus, at the age of seventy- 
six, after reigning forty-five years, he expired on the 19th 
of August, a month formerly called Sextilis, but to which 
he had given his name. He was buried at Rome Math 
great pomp, and divine honors were paid to his memory. 

Augustus possessed, in an eminent degree, all the quali- 
fications necessary to become the founder of the Roman 
Empire ; viz. penetrating genius, energy of soul, activity, 
and above all, a consummate prudence under all possible 
circumstances. His long administration may be proposed, 
in most points, as a model of excellent government ; and 
he himself might be looked upon as one of the best of 
princes, could we forget that the mild and beneficent Au- 
gustus had once been the fierce and cruel Octavius. 
Hence, the common opinion entertained respecting his 
public character is, that it would have conduced fjreatly 
3 



26 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part 



to the happiness of mankind, if Odavius had never been 
born, or if Augustus had never died. 

The census of the Roman citizens was taken several 
times under his reign. In the beginning, thej amounted 
to 4,063,000, and towards the end, to 4,137,000; shortly 
after, under the Emperor Claudius, there were found to 
be nearly 7,000,000 ; these numbers comprise not only 
the inhabitants of Rome, but all persons in every part of 
the Empire, who had obtained by birth or by special 
privilege the right of Roman citizenship,* such as was 
possessed by St. Paul, a Jew and a native of Tarsus in 
Cilicia.t To ascertain precisely the population of the 
city of Rome at that epoch, seems quite impossible ; but 
from a variety of circumstances, it may be reasonably 
supposed to have amounted to about 2,000,000, 



TIBERIUS. A. D. 14—37. 



Immediately after the death of Augustus, Tiberius, who 
had now completed his fifty-fifth year, assumed all the 
marks of the imperial dignity. He was the son of the 
Empress Livia, by a former marriage with Tiberius 
Nero. His mother, indeed, by her credit and influ- 
ence, greatly contributed to his elevation, but it was 
perhaps owing chiefly to his own military and political 
talents ; and these would certainly have fitted him for 
his high station, had he not chosen to act the part of a 
vicious and tyrannical prince. 

Shortly after his accession to the throne, Tiberius be- 
gan to manifest the perverse inclinations of his heart. 

* See Tillemont, histoire des Empereurs, 6 in 4, vol. 1, p. 4, 48, 244.' 
t Act. App. xxr, 39 ; and xxii, 25, 26, 27, 28. 



A. o. 14—37 



TIBERIUS. 27 



Naturally morose and cruel, jealous of any glory acquired 
by others, he was full of dissimulation, and the more to 
be dreaded, as he knew how to conceal his anger. It 
sometimes happened that, whilst he was politely enter- 
taining individuals in his palace, sentence of death was 
pronounced against them, by his orders, in the public tri- 
*bunals of Rome. The most trifling faults in matters 
regarding his government, were visited with the penal- 
ties of high-treason. 

With such a prince it was dangerous to jest. Having 
postponed the payment of some legacies bequeathed by 
Augustus to the Roman people, a wag, who wished to re- 
mind him of his obligation, took advantage of a funeral 
passing along the street, approached the bier, and feign- 
ing to whisper something in the ear of the dead man, 
said, in a tone loud enough to be heard by the by- 
standers: "Fray, remember to tell Augustus that his 
legacies are not yet paid.'' The emperor, having been 
informed of this piece of wit, sent for the unfortunate 
jester, paid him his portion of the legacy, and ordered 
him to be put to death immediately, saying ; " Let him 
go himself to Augustus, and he will be able to give him 
later and better news than that carried by the dead 
man." The jest however had its desired effect, and the 
legacies were shortly after paid to the people. 

Notwithstanding the vices and tyranny of Tiberius, his 
reign was not altogether inglorious. At home, it exhibited 
many acts of justice, firmness and munificence ; and it 
was marked abroad by many successful events, the honor 
of which belongs partly to Drusus, his son, but chiefly to 
Germanicus, his nephew, son of the former Drusus. 

On the reception of the first news of the late emperor's 
death, the legions stationed both in Paanonia and Ger- 
many'for the defence of these countries, openly revolted, 
demanding from their leaders, with alarming threats, 
an increase of their pay and an earlier discharge from 
military service. Drusus and other persons of high 



28 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part I. 



rank, with a few cohorts, were despatched to quell the 
insurrection in Pannonia. On their arrival, they found 
every thing in dreadful confusion, which neither the 
presence of Drusus, nor the reading of his father's 
letters, was able to remove. He on the contrary had 
the mortification to see his guards and counsellors ex- 
posed to the violence of the soldiery, and himself to in- 
sulting cries and clamors. The following night seemed 
to threaten the perpetration of still greater crimes, 
when, in a clear and serene sky, the moon was beheld 
suddenly, though gradually, losing its brightness. The 
overawed soldiers, unacquainted with the cause of the 
eclipse, considered it as a token of the wrath of Heaven, 
and of the frightful punishment which awaited their dis- 
obedience.* Drusus and his council skilfully availed 
themselves of this favorable circumstance, and, ordering 
the leaders of the rebels to be arrested, had them exe- 
cuted on the spot. After this, most of the soldiers 
speedily returned to the strict rule of military discipline ; 
the three legions were then separated without much trou- 
ble, and sent to distant quarters ; by which measure the 
few remaining sparks of rebellion were easily extin- 
guished. Drusus, having thus re-established good order, 
and deeming his presence no longer necessary in Pan- 
nonia, set out for Rome. 

Germanicus, who held the command in Germany, had 
many more difficulties to encounter in staying the revolt 
of his numerous troops. It was only by extraordinary 
exertions, by subjecting himself to every hardship and 
even endangering his life, by opportunely exercising 
severity and lenity, that he was enabled to revive disci- 
pline and regularity among the legions both of the Upper 
and Lower Rhine. 



* Noctem minacem, et in scelus erupturam fors lenivit : nam luna 
claro repente caelo visa lan^uescere. Id miles rationis ignarus omen 

praesentium accepit sibilaborem aeternum portendi, etc. — Tacitus, 

Annal. lib. I, n. xxviii. 



D. 14—3- 



TIBERIUS. 29 



Passing then from one extreme to the other, the soldiers 
despatched with their swords all who had been fore- 
most in the rebellion ; and afterwards, in order to exer- 
cise their valor more properly, asked to be led against the 
barbarians. Germanicus readily complied with their de- 
sire. He threw a bridge over the Rhine, advanced into 
the hostile country with a numerous troop of chosen men 
taken from the legions and the allies, and suddenly at- 
tacked the Germans with great slaughter, whereas among 
the Romans not one soldier was wounded. 

An account of this disaster soon reached several of the 
neighboring tribes. Inflamed with resentment, they took 
up arms ; and, posting themselves to advantage, sur- 
rounded the woods through which the victors were to pass, 
in returning to their camp. After skirmishing with the 
front and the flanks of the army, they fell with their 
whole strength upon the rear. The light cohorts of the 
auxiliary troops found themselves unable to sustain the 
shock, and began to be thrown into confusion ; when Ger- 
manicus, riding at full speed to one of the legions, cried 
aloud that the time was now come for them to efface, by 
a noble exploit, the guilt of the late revolt ; *' Let them 
charge with courage, and gain immortal honor." Ani- 
mated by these words, the legion rushed to the attack, 
and, at the first onset, broke the ranks of the enemy. 
The barbarians fled to the open plain ; the Romans pur- 
sued them with dreadful carnage. From that time, the 
march was unmolested, and the soldiers went into winter 
quarters. 

Tiberius received the intelligence of these events v/ith 
mingled pleasure and anxiety. That the sedition was at 
an end, was to him a source of satisfaction ; but he feared 
that the success of Germanicus would inspire him with 
the idea of claiming the throne for himself. This was 
a groundless suspicion. The young prince, by refusing 
the empire proffered to him, at the time of the revolt, 
2* 



30 MODERN HISTORY 



Part 



by the mutinied legions, had just given an incontrover- 
tible proof of his constant fidelity. Still nothing could 
diminish the secret envy of Tiberius, and he only waited 
for some opportunity, or rather sought some pretence, to 
recall liis nephew to Rome. 

In the mean time, Germanicus had matured his plan of 
operations for the ensuing summer. He opened the cam- 
paign by a sudden and successful irruption into the terri- 
tories near the Rhine. After this, he prepared to march 
against the main forces of the enemy, then assembled un- 
der the command of the same Arminius who had, six years 
before, obtained a memorable victory over the Romans. 
Four legions and the cavalry proceeded by land; Ger- 
manicus, with four other legions, embarked on the Ger- 
man Sea, the more easily to reach the mouth of the river 
Amisia. All arrived in due time at the place of destina- 
tion, and the whole army marched towards the forest 
where the bones of Varus and his legions were said to lie 
unburied. 

As the Romans were advancing, an awful spectacle met 
their view and excited in every breast feelings of horror. 
They saw the ground white with bones, in some places 
thinly scattered, in others lying in heaps, as the unfortu- 
nate soldiers of Varus happened to fall in flight, or in a 
body resisted to the last. Fragments of javelins and the 
limbs of horses lay scattered about the fields ; human 
skulls were seen upon the trunks of trees ; in the adja- 
cent woods stood the blood-stained altars on which the 
tribunes and principal centurions had been offered up in 
sacrifice : and near the decaying intrenchments of the 
Roman camp, was the spot where some, who at first es- 
caped the general massacre, were supposed to have made 
their last effort, and perished in the attempt. 

All were affected at this mournful sight, and with hearts 
oppressed with grief, buried the remains of their slaugh- 
tered countrymen. This duty performed, they pressed 
forward in pursuit of an enemy whom it was not less dif- 



D. 14-S 



TIBERIUS. 31 



ficult to overtake than conquer. At length, Germanicu* 
deeming the opportunity favorable, ordered his cavalry to 
begin the attack. But Arminius, taking advantage of the 
defiles and other difficult parts of the country, feigned a 
retreat to the forest; then, suddenly wheeling about, he 
gave the signal to the troops that lay in ambush in the 
woods, to rush out against the Romans. The cavalry 
which had been advancing, and the auxiliary cohorts des- 
tined to support it, struck with surprise, were put to flight, 
and might have been entirely defeated, had not Germani- 
cus come up with the legions in order of battle, and 
checked the career of the enemy. The armies parted on 
equal terms, and retired to winter quarters, not however 
without the loss of many brave men on the side of the 
Romans ; whilst the survivors were exposed to innumera- 
ble hardships, which they overcame only by their fortitude 
and patience. 

In all this variety of events, Germanicus invariably dis- 
played the greatest personal courage, extraordinary pru- 
dence, and a constant solicitude for the welfare of his 
troops. His ability in improving every advantage and 
every occasion of success, was particularly remarkable. 
When the Germans were to be attacked and driven from 
some post, he took upon himself the most arduous part of 
the attempt, leaving the easiest duties to his lieutenants, 
and yet attributing afterwards to their conduct so much 
of the success, that three of them, Silius, Apronius and 
Cecina, obtained triumphal honors. 

He looked upon the soldiers as his children, and treated 
them with truly paternal kindness. He never uselesslv 
exposed them to dangers, nor fought any battle, except 
when almost certain that he would obtain a considerable 
advantage. After an engagement, he visited the wounded, 
consoled them by placing before them the glory of the 
past and the hope of the future, supplied their wants, and 
with his own money indemnified those who had suffered 
any loss in the campaign. So many virtues and amiable 



32 MODERN HISTORY. Pani. 

qualities endeared Germanicus to his troops, whilst his 
valor and skill made him formidable to the enemy. The 
only fault perhaps in his conduct, is the unrelenting and 
inhuman rigor with which he carried on the war against 
the Germans, spreading slaughter far and wide, and lay- 
ing the whole country waste with fire and sword, without 
regard to age or sex.* 

What has already been said of the Germanic war, be- 
longs to the years 14 and 15 of our Lord. To ensure the 
success of the next campaign, Germanicus determined to 
have all his troops conveyed by water into the heart of 
the enemy's country. By his orders, a fleet consisting of 
a thousand vessels was fitted out for the intended expedi- 
tion. They sailed from the eastern channel of the Rhine, 
proceeded over the lakes, and entering the German Ocean, 
stretched away as far as the river Amisia. There the 
men disembarked, and the ships were left safe at their 
moorings. 7'he Romans advanced through the plain, 
crossed the Visurgis (Weser), and attacked the Germans, 
who were encamped on the right side of the river. 

At the signal given by Germanicus, the infantry began 
the assault in front ; the cavalry, at the same time, charged 
the flank and rear ; both attacks were made with so much 
ardor, that the barbarians, notwithstanding their natural 
bravery, were thrown into confusion and driven from all 
their posts. Yet Arminius performed wonders; by his 
voice, by signs, by every means in his power, still endea- 
voring to sustain the combat. Wounded as he was, and 
nearly surrounded, he braved every danger, and at length 
by vigorous exertions, escaped from the field, having pre- 
viously besmeared his face with his own blood, in order 
to disguise his person. 

The enemies were now completely routed. The victory 
cost the Romans little or no effusion of blood ; but the 
country, ten miles round, was covered with mangled 

* Tacit, ^nnal. lib. I, n. li, lvi ; and lib. II, n. xxv. 



A. D. 14—37. 



TIBERIUS. 33 



bodies and the arms of the vanquished. Among the spoils 
was found a large quantity of fetters, which the Germans, 
in the anticipation of victory, had destined for the Roman 
prisoners. The legions, on the field of battle, again pro- 
claimed Tiberius emperor, and having raised a mound, 
placed on the top of it a pile of German arms, trophies of 
their victory, with an inscription at the base setting forth 
the names of the conquered nations. 

To the Germans nothing could be so exasperating as this 
monument of Roman glory. Inflamed anew with the de- 
sire of revenge, they raised new troops, and once more 
resolved to try the hazard of a battle. Their martial 
spirit was not less than that of the Romans : still, after 
a fierce and obstinate combat, they were again defeated, 
and many of them, seeing that further resistance would 
be fruitless, surrendered at discretion. 

The summer being now far advanced, Germanicus or- 
dered some of the legions to return by land to winter- 
quarters ; he himself sailed with the rest down the river 
Amisia to the Ocean. The weather was favorable, and 
the sea presented no other roughness on its surface than 
that occasioned by the stroke of the oars and the rapid 
motion of a thousand vessels. But this calm was of short 
duration. The sky became overcast; a storm of hail 
burst upon them with sudden fury ; squalls of wind drove 
the billows in different directions ; and the pilot no longer 
knew what course to steer. Horses, arms and baggage 
were thrown overboard in order to lighten the ships ; still 
many of them were either sunk, or wrecked on distant 
islands, where the soldiers perished by famine or lived 
only upon the carcasses of horses cast by the sea upon the 
beach. 

At length the storm abated, and the remaining vessels 
successfully reached the land. Germanicus driven almost 
to despair, took every possible care to gather and comfort 
his troops, and furnished them with new arms and clothes. 
Having refitted the fleet, he sent ships to the islands scat- 
tered through the German Sea, in search of the soldiers 



34 MODERN HISTORY. Parn. 

who had been cast away : by these timely efforts most of 
tliem were saved. 

The news of these disasters spreading abroad, the Ger- 
mans thought of renewing the war; but Germanicus was 
not slow in counteracting their designs : two or three par- 
ties of Roman troops very soon proved to them the frailty 
of their hopes. According to the account given by the 
prisoners, there never was seen among the barbarians 
more general consternation : they were now forced to con- 
fess that the Romans rose superior to adversity, a nation 
of heroes not to be in any way subdued ; and no doubt re- 
mained but that another summer would terminate the war. 

Tiberius could no longer brook the idea that Germani- 
cus should acquire so much glory in the command of ar- 
mies, and he ardently desired his return. All his letters 
were to that effect. In them, he remarked that it would 
be much more expedient to abandon the Germans to their 
own dissensions, and that it was now high time for their 
conqueror to return, and enjoy in the Capital the glorious 
repose due to his protracted labors. Germanicus obeyed, 
tliough with reluctance. His entrance into the city ex- 
hibited a magnificent spectacle; and, that nothing might 
be wanting to the splendor of the occasion, Tiberius or- 
dered money to be distributed among the people and the 
soldiers, in the name of the young prince. He moreover 
appointed him his colleague in the consulship for the en- 
suing year ; but these marks of good will, though specious, 
were by no one thought sincere. 

It is true, however, that what he had foreseen with re- 
gard to the termination of the war, really happened. The 
different nations of Germany, no longer dreading a foreign 
power, began, according to the custom of barbarians, to 
quarrel among themselves. Various battles were fought, 
in which Arminius, at the head of his countrymen, the 
Cheruscans, maintained his former glory, and gave to the 
power of the Marcoman King Maroboduus, a fatal blow 
from which he never recovered. About the same time. 



A. D. 14-37. TIBERIUS. 35 

letters were received at Rome from another German 
prince, in which he proposed to despatch Arminius, pro- 
vided poison should be sent well prepared for that effect. 
These letters were read in the senate ; but the proposal 
was magnanimously rejected, and, in imitation of the no- 
ble conduct of ancient generals in similar circumstances, 
Tiberius answered the German prince that it was not by 
poison and fraud, but by steel and open force that the 
Romans were accustomed to subdue their enemies. 

Arminius however did not long survive. When he saw 
the Roman troops withdrawn from the German territories, 
and Maroboduus his chief rival fallen, he had the ambi- 
tion to aim at the sovereign power. The independent 
spirit of his countrymen turned many of them against him : 
Arminius fought with various success, and fell at last by 
the treachery of his own relations; *' A man," says Taci- 
tus, " undoubtedly to be considered as the deliverer of 
Germany, and with far more honor than generals and 
kings of former days, as he had not merely to cope with 
Rome in her infancy, but to struggle against her, now that 
she had grown into a flourishing and powerful empire. 
He attacked the Romans in the height of their glory, and 
in his efforts against them, was sometimes victorious, 
often defeated, yet, in the issue of the war, still uncon- 
quered."* He lived only ST years, during twelve of 
which he commanded the Germanic league ; leaving after 
him a renown very great indeed, but tarnished by his at- 
tempt to wrest from his countrymen that liberty which he 
and they had so long and so gloriously defended. 

The death of Arminius lulled the emperor's apprehen- 
sions with respect to the Germans, who, having lost their 
hero, did not for a long time excite any dangerous dis- 
turbance, but were contented with the peace which the 
Romans suffered them to enjoy. This was the great ob- 
ject which Tiberius had ardently wished : he desired 

* Tacit. Annal. lib. II, n. lxxxviii 



36 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part: 



nothing so much as to prevent troubles and maintain tran- 
quillity in the empire. Hence, whilst he exercised his 
tyranny in Rome, Italy and the provinces had compara- 
tively little to suffer under his government. On many 
occasions, he manifested great zeal for the due admin- 
istration of justice, and, although addicted to many gross 
vices, endeavored to stem the torrent of general corrup- 
tion. Acting up to his own maxim, that the sheep must 
he sheared, not flayed y he was careful that the subjects 
of the empire should not be oppressed by too heavy taxes, 
and attentive to afford speedy assistance to those who 
happened to fall into unavoidable misfortunes. 

Thus, when many parts of Asia Minor were laid waste 
by a tremendous earthquake which destroyed in one night 
twelve celebrated cities (a. d. 17), the liberality of the 
emperor was an abundant source of relief to the surviv- 
ing inhabitants. He granted a remission of all tribute 
for five years, and sums of money proportionate to their 
losses. By this generosity, Tiberius gained great enco- 
miums, and the cities of Asia, to perpetuate its remem- 
brance, struck medals — some of which are yet extant. A 
few years after, all that quarter of the Capital on Mount 
Caelius was destroyed by a conflagration ; Tiberius, with- 
out waiting to be solicited or petitioned, and without any 
partiality for the rank of the sufferers, equally indemni- 
fied all those whose houses had been burnt : such as had 
no friend or protector at court, were sent for, and received 
the sums necessary to rebuild their dwellings. At an- 
other time, he gave a hundred millions of sesterces (about 
three millions of dollars), to repair the losses occasioned 
by a similar accident. These acts of generosity were the 
more to his honor, as he was very modest in his own 
buildings. In fine, there was another kind of public ca- 
lamity that claimed and drew forth his munificence. The 
practice of exacting heavy interests, and the want of a 
good currency, having caused scenes of great distress 
among the people, he procured a considerable fund to be 



A. D. 14—37 



TIBERIUS. 37 



lent out of the imperial treasury, without interest, for 
three years, on condition that the borrower, for the secu- 
rity of the exchequer, should give a mortgage on lands of 
double the value. By that seasonable aid public credit 
was revived. 

These various examples plainly show that Tiberius was 
not so regardless of the miseries of his subjects as some 
writers assert. Yet, notwithstanding these generous acts, 
it must be confessed that his character was really perverse 
and cruel. From his very youth, these defects had ap- 
peared ; so much so, that his tutor declared him to be a 
lump of clay moistened with blood. Hence Rome and 
the patrician families had much to dread and suffer from 
his suspicious policy. It was even a misfortune to be 
nearly related to him ; a great part of his own family be- 
came the unhappy victims of liis cruel and jealous temper. 

Germanicus, after his triumph, was sent to Asia with 
great powers from the emperor and the senate, to settle 
some important business, and tranquillize many of the 
provinces in which great disturbances had lately been 
excited. He faithfully excuted his commission, and con- 
ferred upon those countries innumerable benefits, with a 
courteous dignity which enhanced their value. Every 
where, his noble and generous conduct attracted equally 
the praises and affections of the people. 

But Cneius Piso, a proud and violent man, had been at 
the same time appointed by Tiberius governor of Syria, 
with secret orders, as it was believed, to annoy, oppose and 
counteract Germanicus in every thing: a commission which, 
whether given or feigned, was too faithfully performed. 
For a long time the young prince bore with patience and 
moderation the affronts and injuries heaped on him by his 
vile persecutor, and even treated him with generosity ; an 
open rupture followed, shortly after which Germanicus 
fell sick and died at Antioch, under the impression that 
he had been poisoned by Piso and his consort Plancina. 

Intense was the grief occasioned throughout the empire 



38 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part 



by the death of Germanicus. When his disconsolate 
widow Agrippina carried back in an urn the ashes of her 
husband, she found the roads covered with people whose 
tears and sighs told her how deeply they shared in her 
affliction. But it would be difficult to describe the sor- 
row evinced in the Capital. The day on which the re- 
mains of the prince were deposited in the tomb of Augus- 
tus, was one of inexpressible mourning. Tiberius himself 
was compelled to manifest exteriorly a grief in which his 
heart had no share, and to abandon Piso to the public in- 
dio-nation. This unhappy man v/as not, it is true, con- 
yicted of the crime laid to his charge ; but he had com- 
mitted other crimes deserving the severity of the law. 
Piso perceived his danger: before the trial was concluded, 
he was found dead in his chamber, with his throat cut, and 
a sword lying near him on the floor; but whether he had 
committed suicide, or had been killed by others for fear 
of what he might disclose, was left uncertain. 

The other enemies of Germanicus met with little seve- 
rity ; on the contrary, his family supplied new victims to 
the insatiable hatred of Tiberius. So far did the cruelty 
of the emperor extend, that he caused Agrippina and her 
two eldest sons to perish by ill-treatment and starvation. 
Having a real affection for no one but himself, he bore 
with a firmness bordering on insensibility, the death of his 
own son Drusus, who had been poisoned by the com- 
mander of the praetorian (imperial) guards. 

This commander was a certain ^lius Sejanus, who, 
gaining the favor of Tiberius, rose from the rank of a 
simple knight to that of his chief minister. New honors 
were daily conferred upon him, and in a short time his 
power was not far inferior to that of Tiberius himself. 
Not satisfied with this success, he conceived the daring 
desio-n of opening his way to the throne by the extermi • 
nation of the imperial family. After Drusus and the sons 
of Germanicus were removed, he prevailed upon the 
eii^peror to retire from Rome for the sake of greater tran- 



Ji. D. 14—37. 



TIBERIUS. 39 



quillity, and to intrust the reigns of government to him, 
his tried a?id faithful minister. But whilst Sejanus, thus 
far successful, was revolving in his mind the last step for 
the accomplishment of his designs, his treason was de* 
tected ; and Tiberius having informed the senate, bj a 
message, of the whole affair, sentence of death was pro- 
nounced against the traitor and excuted without delay. 
Most of the friends and relations of Sejanus were in- 
volved in his ruin. 

Whilst these painful transactions took place in Rome, 
Judea was the theatre of most interesting events. For 
more than three years, our Lord favored it with the pub- 
lic spectacle of his heavenly virtues and the preaching of 
his Gospel, which he confirmed by many miracles ; and 
finally, by his passion and death, he completed the great 
work of the redemption of mankind (a. d. 33). Three 
days after, he rose glorious from the dead ; frequently 
appeared to his disciples, giving them, during forty days, 
various necessary instructions about the establishment 
and government of his Church ; appointed St. Peter the 
chief pastor of the whole Christian flock*; commissioned 
him and the other Apostles to go and teach all nations, 
with the positive promise of his daily assistance till the 
end of the worldt; and finally ascended into heaven in 
their presence. 

After ten days, the Apostles being all assembled in Je- 
rusalem, the Holy Ghost came down upon them in a visi- 
ble manner. They immediately began to preach with 
astonishing success. The first two discourses of St. Peter 
converted eight thousand Jews ; many more afterwards 
became converts ; so that, even before the close of Tibe- 
rius's reign, a numerous Church \vas already established 
in Jerusalem, whence the light of the Gospel began to dif- 
fuse itself in every direction and in every part of the 
world. 

* John XXI. 16, 17. f Matth. xxtiii. 19, 20. 



40 MODERN HISTORY 



Part I. 



These are the only consoling objects which present 
themselves to our view in the midst of a deluge of crimes : 
for no age was ever more corrupted. Tiberius above all, 
without ceasing to pay some attention to the public weal, 
every day gave fuller scope to his unruly passions, and to his 
tyrannical cruelties against the first families of the empire. 
Informations, trials and executions were multiplied, and 
the most illustrious personages in Rome gradually disap- 
peared, unhappy objects of the hatred of a suspicious and 
sanguinary prince. 

Nothing can be imagined more degrading to humanity, 
than the scenes which marked the last years of his life. 
No less odious to himself than to others, he retired into 
the small and at that time delightful island of Caprea, a 
name which no one ever after remembered or pronounced 
without horror. There he abandoned himself, for several 
years, to all the excesses of the most profligate passions, 
his cruelties always keeping pace with his debaucheries. 
Sometimes, standing on the shore, he would order those 
whom he had doomed to die, to be precipitated from the 
rocks into the sea, where soldiers with long poles beat 
their mangled bodies, the more effectually to extinguish 
any remaining spark of life. 

At length his constitution was broken, and his strength 
began to fail. In the hope of finding a more salubrious 
situation, he left the island of Caprea, and went over to 
the continent, where, falling very sick at Misenum, a 
promontory near Naples, he was, on the 16th of March 
(a. d. 37), seized with a fainting fit, during which many 
thought him dead. He however recovered his senses : but 
Macro, the commander of the praetorian guards, who had 
already paid his homage to the presumed successor, gave 
orders that the old emperor should be smothered with pil- 
lows. Thus, in his seventy-eighth year, and the twenty- 
third of his reign, Tiberius perished by the perfidy of his 
own friends, a treatment of which he himself had been so 
frequently guilty. 



A. D. 37-41. CALIGULA. 41 

He did not reach at once that height of wickedness 
which has justly caused his memory to be held in detesta- 
tion. Tacitus well observes a striking gradation in his 
course of vice and tyranny, and accurately defines its 
different stages. " Tiberius," says he, " was much es- 
teemed tvhilst a private man, and as long as he held of- 
fices under Augustus. He was artful in feigning virtue, 
in the beginning of his own reign, until the death of Ger- 
manicus and Drusus ; his actions were a mixture of good 
and evil during the life time of his mother Livia ; de- 
testably cruel, but secret in his debaucheries, while he 
loved or feared Sejanus ; lastly, he abandoned himself to 
every sort of profligacy, when, freed from all the restraints 
of fear and shame, he knew and followed no other guide 
than the bent of his abominable inclinations."* 

Phaedrus, the celebrated fabulist, and Quintus-Curtius, 
the elegant historian of Alexander, lived under Tiberius; 
the poets Persius and Lucan flourished shortly after. 



CALIGULA.— A. D. 37—41. 

One of the sons of Germanicus, not only had escaped 
the ruin in which the rest of his family were involved, but 
even constantly enjoyed the favor of Tiberius, and be- 
came his adopted son. This was Cai'us, better known by 
the name of Caligula, (from Caliga, a sort of military boot 
which he had been accustomed to wear, whilst yet a child, 
in the camp of his father). He succeeded the late empe- 
ror without opposition, and even to the great satisfaction 
of the whole empire ; indeed he seemed at first, by seve- 
ral acts of clemency and beneficence, to deserve this mark 
of public esteem. He restored many privileges to the 
people ; delivered innocent and calumniated persons from 
prison or banishment; abolished arbitrary prosecutions 

* TacU. Aivml. lib. VI. n. lvi. 
4* 



42 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part I. 



for crimes of state ; and evinced such good intentions, 
that he received from the senate the most flattering honors. 

But the joy of the Romans was not of long duration, 
and their hopes of a prosperous government were cruelly 
deceived. Caligula was taken dangerously ill, and after 
his recovery, either because he was unwilling any longer 
to restrain his passions, or because his intellect had been 
impaired by the violence of the disease, he began to act 
like a madman, and indulged in every species of injustice, 
cruelty and lust. 

He commenced his extravagant career by spending, in 
games and foolish entertainments, two billions five hun- 
dred millions of sesterces (about sixty-three millions of 
dollars), in less than one year ; and when the public 
treasury was drained, he had recourse to the most fright- 
ful extortions. Daily confiscations, oppressive taxes, ra- 
pine, murder and plunder of the wealthiest citizens, were 
the means to which Caligula resorted, in order to gather 
heaps of gold and silver for the indulgence of his unin- 
terrupted extravagance. On one occasion, being at play, 
he happened to want money. He sent for the public 
register which contained the names of the property- 
holders, condemned a certain number of them to death, 
and said, with a smile, to those with whom he was playing : 
*' How unlucky you are ! It has taken you a long time to 
win a small sum, and in one monient I have won six hun- 
dred millions of sesterces (fifteen millions of dollars)." 

In barbarity Caligula was never surpassed. He wished 
that the Roman people had but one head, that it might be 
struck off at a blow. This being impossible, he at least 
caused many persons to be massacred by his soldiers, or 
thrown into the arena, there to be devoured by wild 
beasts, their tongues having been previously cut out to 
prevent them from complaining. He forced others to kill 
themselves, among the rest young Tiberius his cousin, and 
grand-son of the late emperor. Neither rank nor age 
was exempt from his fury. At a repast with the two con- 



A. D. 37-41. 



CALIGULA, 43 



suls, he suddenly burst into a loud laugh : the consuls 
having respectfully entreated him to acquaint them with 
the cause of his extraordinary joy; "I was thinking," 
he replied, " that it requires but a sign from me, to have 
both of you killed in an instant." It was his pleasure to 
see the victims of his monstrous cruelty suffer the most 
excruciating torments ; his delight to make them feel 
death, and behold their blood flowing and their limbs 
scattered. 

The more ferocious and barbarous he was towards men, 
the more kind and feeling he was towards beasts. He 
honored his horse, called Incitatus, in every manner he 
could imagine ; he gave him a palace, with guards, ser- 
vants, a cook, and such other attendants as the happy ani- 
mal might require, in order to entertain his guests with 
due solemnity. He invited him to his own table, at which 
he gave him gilded barley to eat, and wine to drink in 
golden cups. Incitatus was clothed in purple, wore a 
collar of pearls, and the night before he had to run in the 
race, sentinels were placed around his palace, to prevent 
the least noise that might disturb his repose. In fine, 
Caligula was accustomed to swear by his horse, and he 
would have appointed him consul, had he not been pre- 
vented by death. 

His military exploits were not less extravagant. Be- 
sides the numerous legions stationed in various parts of 
the empire, he raised new troops, and went with them and 
a band of comedians, buffoons, and gladiators, to join the 
old legions encamped on the banks of the Rhine. Here 
he found himself at the head of nearly 250,000 men. As 
the Germans scorned to fight against such a general, that 
he might not leave the frontier without some semblance 
of victory, he contrived a sclieme in perfect accordance 
with his character. A detachment of his own troops was 
sent to the other side of the Rhine, with secret orders to 
conceal themselves in a wood. Then Caligula, crossing 
over at the head of the legions, marched against them ; th« 



44 MODERN HISTORY. 



Parti. 



pretended enemy was easily routed, and the emperor re- 
turned crowned with laurels. 

His courage impelled him afterwards to go to the sea- 
coast facing Great Britain. As soon as he arrived, he 
drew up the legions along the shore, and having gone up 
a short distance in the imperial galley, returned in great 
haste and gave the signal for battle. The soldiers with sur- 
prise asked who was their enemy ; when Caligula informed 
them that the enemy was the ocean just conquered by him 
in their presence, and that they had nothing else to do 
than collect the shells thrown on the shore as trophies of 
this great victory. The better to perpetuate the remem- 
brance of so glorious an event, he laid the foundation of 
a lofty tower, and set out for Rome, in order to give him- 
self the honors of a triumph. 

To fill up the measure of his absurdities, he even arro- 
gated to himself divine honors. He had a temple erected 
to his name, and a statue to which sacrifices were offered. 
Of the order of sacrificators instituted for this purpose, 
the principal members were his uncle Claudius, his wife, 
his horse, and himself. 

At last it entered into the mind of Caligula that the 
Jews were a most unhappy people in not acknowledging 
him as a god; he therefore resolved to have his statue 
placed and adored in the temple of Jerusalem. But be- 
fore he could execute his design, a violent death closed 
his career of crime and impiety. Cherea, a tribune of 
the pretorian guards, stabbed him in the middle of Rome, 
after he had reigned four, and lived twenty-nine years 
(a. d. 41). His name is every where recorded as that of 
the worst of men and a monster of cruelty. 

CLAUDIUS.— A. D. 41—54. 

On the assassination of Caligula, dreadful confusion fol- 
lowed in Rome. It was the wish of the senate to re-estab- 
lish the commonwealth: but the praetorians proclaimed 



A. X,. 41-54. CLAUDIUS. 45 

Claudius emperor, and the senators were compelled to 
submit. 

This Claudius was the brother of Germanicus, and 
uncle of Caligula; a man of so weak an intellect and 
such unconquerable timidity, that his mother Antonia, 
when she met with any silly person, was accustomed to 
say : " He is as great a fool as my son Claudius." Such 
a man was assuredly more in need of being governed, than 
qualified to govern others ; yet, for the greater humilia- 
tion of heathen Rome, Almighty God permitted him to hold 
the sceptre during thirteen years. The most important 
event of his reign was an invasion of Great Britain, 
which reduced a considerable part of that country to the 
Roman power. Hitherto, the Britons had retained their 
original independence ; but, at the instigation of Beric, a 
British chieftain whom domestic factions had driven from 
his native land, the emperor commanded Aulus Plautius 
to undertake the expedition with four legions and their 
auxiliaries. It was not without great difiiculty that the 
troops were induced to engage in the attempt, and go 
to another world; for such they considered Great Britain. 
At length they followed their general, crossed the chan- 
nel, and landed, as it appears, in the county of Kent. 
The natives, notwithstanding their fright at the first ap- 
pearance of the invaders, made a gallant resistance ; but, 
overpowered by the well-disciplined troops of the Ro- 
mans, they soon began to give way, and Plautius, pursu- 
ino; his advantao;e, arrived at the mouth of the Thames. 
No sooner v/as Claudius informed of the success of his 
lieutenant, than he set out to take the command in person. 
He did not however stay more than sixteen days in the 
island. After receiving the submission of the natives in 
the vicinity, he returned to Rome, where he enjoyed the 
honors of a magnificent triumph. 

The war nevertheless was not yet ended. Plautius, 
who was left behind with a powerful army, spent four 
years more in extending and securing his conquests. 



46 MODERN HISTORY. ^^j 

Vespasian, an officer whose merit afterwards raised him 
to the throne, greatly distinguished himself in that expe- 
dition. At the head of a Roman legion and some auxili- 
aries, he fought thirty battles, took twenty towns, and 
subdued two of the British nations. Thus, a great part 
of the country north and south of the Thames, was re- 
duced into a Roman province. 

Five years after the beginning of the war (a. d. 48), 
Plautius went to receive, in the Capital of the empire, 
the reward of his services, and was succeeded in Britain 
by Ostorius Scapula, who not only kept, but even en- 
larged the conquests of his predecessor. Soon after his 
arrival, he was suddenly attacked by the Britons border- 
ing on the Roman province, who thought that an extraor- 
dinary effort might rid them of their invaders, at a time 
when the new general was yet unacquainted with their 
manner of warfare and the rigor of their winters. Osto- 
rius, sensible how much the reputation of a commander 
depends on his first success, immediately marched against 
them, cut to pieces those who resisted, and dispersed the 
survivors. A second victory, which in a short time fol- 
lowed the first, gave him a decided superiority over the 
natives. 

Still, the Silures who lived between the Severn and the 
Irish Sea, were not so easily subdued. Led on by Carac- 
tacus, the greatest warrior in the country, they continued 
to defend their liberty with undaunted courage. Their 
army, by the arrival of many allies, became very numer- 
ous, and so great was their animosity against the Romans, 
that Ostorius could not without difficulty be induced to 
give them battle. His troops loudly insisting, and crjdng 
out that they were sure of victory, Ostorius looked upon 
their ardor as a happy presage, nor was he deceived in his 
expectations. No obstacle could successfully oppose the 
Roman legions. Tffey crossed a river, entered the ene- 
my's intrenchments, and amidst a shower of darts, occu- 
pied the heights on which their adversaries had posted 



A. D. 41-^. CLAUDIUS. 47 

themselves. The Silures were entirely defeated. The 
family of Caractacus fell into the hands of the victors, 
and the chieftain himself, betrayed by his own relations, 
was delivered in chains to the Roman general. 

This event was celebrated at Rome with great joy. 
" The fame of Caractacus had already crossed the seas ; 
and the natives of Italy were anxious to behold the man 
who had braved for nine years the power of Rome. As 
he passed through the imperial city, he expressed his sur- 
prise that men who possessed such palaces at home, should 
deem it worth their while to fight for the wretched hovels 
of Britain."* He appeared in the presence of Claudius 
with characteristic magnanimity, and, whilst the other 
prisoners bewailed with tears their unhappy fate, he be- 
haved and spoke like a hero. The emperor treated him 
with kindness, and set him and his family at liberty. 

The other events of the reign of Claudius are little 
worthy of notice. His government was a mixture of good 
and evil, from the variety of good and evil counsels which he 
received, and according as he was left to his natural mode- 
ration, or controlled by base advisers. In private, he 
led a contemptible life, and after being infamously dis- 
honored by Messalina, his first wife, he was poisoned by 
his second wife Agrippina. 

This Agrippina, the daughter of Germanicus, was a 
wicked and ambitious princess, who used her utmost en- 
deavors to secure the succession to the throne for Domi- 
tius, her son by a former husband. Having at length 
prevailed upon Claudius to adopt Domitius, and confer 
on him the title of Caesar, to the exclusion of his own 
son Britannicus, she soon effected the object of her wishes, 
by poisoning the stupid emperor. He died in the 14th 
year of his reign, the 64th of his life, and the 54th of the 
Christian era. 

* Lingard's Hist, of Eng. vol. I, a. d. 52. 



48 MODERN HISTORY. pani. 



NERO.— A. D. 54—68. 

The son of Agrippina, on assuming' the imperial crown, 
exchanged his birth-name Domitius for that of Claudius 
Nero, the name of his adoptive family. He had enjoyed 
the benefits of a good education under the fphilosopher 
Seneca. While controlled by this wise tutor, and by 
Burrhus, the commander of his guards, a man of great 
talents and integrity, Nero preserved a show of decency 
in his public conduct. Like Tiberius and Caligula, he 
commenced his reign by performing several laudable acts, 
took great care to have the city plentifully supplied with 
every thing needful, and gave considerable pensions to 
poor senators who could not otherwise support their rank 
and dignity. On a certain day, when a death-warrant 
was brought to him to be signed ; " I wish," said he, " I 
had never learned to write." When the senate, on one 
occasion, had offered him their sincere thanks, he replied: 
" I shall be happy to receive your thanks, when I truly 
deserve them." In a word, Nero's actions, in the begin- 
ning, were characterized by clemency, liberality, kind- 
ness, and every thing calculated to win the affections of 
the people. 

But his vices could not long brook restraint; his true 
character soon appeared in its native deformity, a com- 
pound of all that is cruel, infamous and base. His cru- 
elty first displayed itself in the poisoning of his young 
brother Britannicus, whose gentle disposition had excited 
his fears lest he should gain too much upon the favor of 
the Romans. The poison which perfidious officers admin- 
istered to the young prince at table, was so violent, that 
he presently lost the use of his senses, fell upon the 
floor, and soon expired. Nero, who was present, and 
scarcely eighteen years old, beheld that awful spectacle 
with the steadiness of a tyrant already hardened in 
crime. 



A. D. 54-68. 



NERO, 49 



This atrocious deed was but the prelude to another still 
more heinous, the murder of his mother Agrippina. He 
endeavored first to have her drowned in the sea ; but, this 
plan failing, she was, by his command, slain in a house 
into which she had retired. 

After such crimes, nothing, how horrid soever, can ap- 
pear astonishing in the life of such a monster as Nero. 
He spared neither his first wife, Octavia, whose veins 
were opened by his orders ; nor his second, called Poppea, 
whom, in a fit of rage, he killed by a blow with his foot ; 
nor his tutor Byrrhus, whom, it was believed, he poisoned, 
in order to rid himself of his admonitions ; nor his pre- 
ceptor Seneca, who, together with the poet Lucan, being 
accused of having taken part in some conspiracy against 
him, was commanded to terminate his own existence ; a 
command which both obeyed.*' Nero sported with the 
lives of others, and Rome daily lost her most virtuous.and 
illustrious citizens, the victims of his tyranny. 

In the mean time, it was necessary to adopt measures 
for repelling the Parthians from Armenia, which they had 
lately invaded. Corbulo, a general of well known talents, 
was sent against them. When he arrived in Syria to take 
the command of the legions, he found them greatly weak- 
ened by idleness and insubordination. His first care was 
to subject them, as well as the new levies, to the laws of 
strict discipline, and to train them to the hardships of war 
by constant labor, painful marches or encampments, and 
other military exercises ; by rewards properly bestowed 
and punishments justly inflicted ; but particularly by 
giving to all the example of unshaken courage iri dangers 
and unconquerable fortitude in enduring fatigue. 

As soon as Corbulo could rely on his troops, he led them 
against the enemy. On their side, the Parthians advanced 
against him, under the command of Tiridate, a brother to 
their king Vologeses. According to their custom, they 
moved with rapidity from place to place, and by this wild 

* See note A. 



50 MODERN HISTORY. 



Parti, 



and desultory warfare, more than by victories, kept the 
country in constant alarm. Corbulo endeavored, but in 
vain, to bring them to an engagement: he was obliged to 
adopt the very plan of the enemy, and dividing his troops 
into separate bodies, at last succeeded in counteracting 
all the operations of Tiridate. 

This however did not suffice to terminate the war, and 
more decisive measures were resorted to by the Roman 
general. He pressed forward, forced all the towns and 
fortresses in his way to surrender, and finally arrived be- 
fore Artaxate, the capital of Armenia. It was taken in 
one day, and burnt, after sufficient time had been allowed 
to the inhabitants to save their lives. Tigranocerta, 
another important city, surrendered without resistance, 
and was spared by the conquerors. The Parthians, terri- 
fied at the sudden and repeated successes of Corbulo, sued 
for peace. It was granted, and even Armenia, which had 
been the chief occasion of this long struggle, was given 
as a possession to Tiridate, on the sole condition that he 
would lay down his diadem at the feet of the emperor's 
statue in the Roman camp, and afterwards repair to Rome, 
to receive it again from the emperor himself. Terms so 
favorable to his fortune the Parthian prince readily ac- 
cepted and faithfully executed. Thus we see that the 
Romans were still terrible in battle, and moderate after 
victory. 

What Corbulo did in Asia, w^as done in Great Britain 
by Suetonius Paulinus, another famous general. To him 
the Romans were indebted for the reduction of the Isle 
of Mona, now called Anglesey. But the Britons, avail- 
ing themselves of his absence, formed a powerful league 
to recover their freedom, and to throw off a yoke which 
the insolence and oppression of the Roman soldiers ren- 
dered every day more oppressive. The whole province 
rose in arms ; the colonies founded by the conquerors 
were laid waste with fire and sword ; London and other 
municipal towns were pillaged, and their inhabitants 



A. D. 54-68. NERO. 51 

slaughtered to the number of 70,000 persons, all citizens 
or allies. 

Suetonius had returned, and was now endeavoring to 
put down the insurrection. He formed his best troops 
into one body of about 10,000 men, and determined, not- 
withstanding the enormous disproportion between this 
number and that of the insurgents, to attack them, and 
bring on a decisive battle. For this end, he selected a 
spot encircled with woods, narrow at the entrance, and 
protected in the rear by a thick forest. In that situation, 
he had no fear of an ambuscade, and the enemy had no 
access except in front. The Britons brought into the open 
plain that lay before them, an immense multitude, amount- 
ing to 230,000 warriors* under the command of Queen 
Boadicea, a woman of masculine courage. They were 
already exulting, and so confident of victory, that they 
had placed their wives upon wagons at the extremity of 
the plain, to enable them to survey the action, and behold 
the wonders of British valor. 

When the signal for battle was given, the Britons see- 
ing the Romans silent and motionless in their narrow de- 
file, advanced with rapidity, and discharged their darts. 
At that moment, the legions rushed forward in the form of 
a wedge ; the cavalry at the same time bore down upon 
the enemy, and overpowered all who dared to resist. The 
Britons betook themselves to flight, but were stopped by 
the wagons which they had placed in the rear. A dread- 
ful slaughter ensued, in which 80,000 Britons are said to 
have perished ; whereas the Romans lost only 400 men. 
This splendid victory, equal to any of ancient times, 
greatly contributed to keep Britain in subjection; the 
more so, as Boadicea, unable to bear the idea of such a 
defeat, survived but a very short time. Still, the country 
was not entirely subdued until the reign of Domitian. 

Whilst, at the two extremities of the empire, Corbulo 



52 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part I. 



and Suetonius maintained its majesty, in Rome it was 
more and more degraded by Nero. He plunged without 
shame into every kind of debauchery. He frequently 
spent the night in running through the streets in the garb 
of a slave, accompanied by a band of rioters, with whom 
he attacked every one that he met, and stole whatever 
fell in his way. His delight during the day was to 
drive chariots in the circus, or to act the part of a come- 
dian on the stage : there he danced, sang, and played on 
the lute, compelling the audience to admire him and give 
him their applause. 

His daily expenses were enormous : he endeavored to 
dispel the horror which his crimes excited, by making 
large donations of lands, houses, gold, silver, jewels and 
other valuable objects, to the common people; also by 
having magnificent plays and shows frequently repeated. 
Not satisfied with all this, he was fond of exciting sur- 
prise by the singularity of his exhibitions, and w ould often 
unite, at the same time and place, shows of different and 
even contrary kinds : for example, a vast sheet of water 
would, the moment after a sea-fight had been performed 
on it, be instantly drained, and become a field of battle for 
land troops and gladiators. Dio-Cassius mentions one 
occasion on which the scene was changed in this manner 
four times in one day. 

While Nero thus consulted the gratification of the people, 
he was still more attentive to his ov/n. Not to mention 
the extravagant luxury of his table, he built a palace so 
magnificent, so profusely ornamented with ivory, gold and 
precious stones, that it received the name of the " golden 
palace." When it was finished, Nero said that then, for 
the first time, he had a decent habitation. He hazarded 
at gaming immense sums of money ; never put on the same 
coat twice ; never undertook a journey without taking along 
with him at least a thousand carriages, with a proportion- 
ate number of attendants in costly apparel, drivers splen- 
didly dressed, and mules shod with silver. In fine, he 



x.D. 54-68. NERO. 53 

was as fond of his monkey as Caligula had been of his 
horse ; and accordingly gave it dwellings in the town, and 
lands in the country, and after its death, buried it with 
royal pomp. 

If to this profusion we add his mania for building, we 
shall easily conceive how the revenues of the whole em- 
pire were not sufficient for Nero. As he was determined 
constantly to follow up his extravagant principles, rapine 
and extortion became his only resource. Towards the 
end of his reign, so exorbitant were the contributions 
which he exacted, that not only Italy, but also the pro- 
vinces, all the parts of the empire, and even the allies, 
were ruined. 

His cruelties were always equal to his other enormities. 
The blood of illustrious citizens continued, under various 
pretences, to be spilt in Rome; " At last," says Tacitus, 
** Nero desired to destroy virtue itself, by putting to death 
Barea Soranus and Thrasea Paetus, the two most distin- 
guished and virtuous members of the Senate.* Corbulo, 
as the reward of his great services, received sentence of 
capital punishment, the execution of which he prevented 
by killing himself; and Vespasian narrowly escaped the 
same fate, for having slept whilst the emperor was singing 
on the stage. 

It seemed that nothing more was requisite to render 
Nero an accomplished monster, than that he should be- 
come an incendiary ; and such he really became (a. d. 64). 
To him most historians attribute the famous conflao;ra- 
tion which in that year destroyed two -thirds of Rome. 
It lasted nine days, during which there was nothing to be 
seen in the city but consternation and despair. Nero, on 
the contrary, from the summit of a tower, contemplated 
with delight the devouring flames, and, in a theatrical 
dress, sang verses on the burning of Troy. Such, at least, 
was the common report at the time. 

* Tacit. Annal. lib. XVI, n. xxi. 



54 MODERN HISTORY 



Part 



The town was rebuilt upon a new and more regular 
plan; but the wretched prince, in order to remove the 
just suspicion that it had been set on fire by his orders, 
laid this crime to the charge of the Christians, who, 
bj the apostolic labors of St. Peter and St. Paul, were 
already very numerous in Rome. As the purity of their 
lives was a censure on the corruption of the age, and their 
total separation from pagan festivities, an occasion of 
hatred and contempt, Nero thought them fit subjects for 
public vengeance.* Numbers of them were arrested, and 
doomed to suffer the most frightful torments. Some, 
wrapped in the skins of wild beasts, were left to be de- 
voured by dogs ; others, fixed to a cross, waited, in the 
most cruel agonies, the sfow approach of death ; others 
were burned alive, and many, covered with inflammable 
matter and set on fire, served as torches during the night 
in the imperial gardens. In order to enjoy this awful 
spectacle, Nero went through the avenues in his chariot, 
in the dress of a charioteer. It was during this persecu- 
tion that St. Peter and St. Paul suffered martyrdom, the 

* Thus an unjust and atrocious charge gave rise to the first persecu- 
tion which the Church of Christ had to suffer from the Gentiles. It 
was fit that her first persecutor should be the same prince who proved 
an enemy to all virtue. But the example bein^ once set by him, was 
afterwartls too faithfully imitated, and from this time to the reign of 
Constantine the Great, the Christians were almost continually vexed 
and tormented, as well under the good as under the bad emperors. 

These persecutions were carried on, sometimes by command of the 
emperors themselves urged on by ruthless magistrates ; sometimes by an 
insurrection of the people ; and sometimes by solemn decrees pro- 
nounced in the senate, upon the rescripts of princes, or in their pre- 
sence. Then the persecution was more universal and bloody ; and thus 
the malice of unbelievers, ever inveterately bent on destroying the 
Church, was excited, from time to time, to new acts of fury. From 
these successive outbreaks of violence, ecclesiastical historians reckon 
ten persecutions under ten emperors ; viz. Nero — Domitian — Trajan — 
Marcus Aurelius — Septimius-Severus — Maximin — Decius — Valerian — 

Aurelian — and Diocletian Of all the faithful, the bishops were 

always the most severely treated ; of all the Churches, the Church of 
Rome was persecuted with the greatest violence ; and thirty Sovereign- 
Pontiffs sealed with their blood that Gospel which they declared to the 
whole earth. Bossiiet^s discourse on Univ. History, part I. 



A. D. 54—68. 



NERO. 55 



former by the cross, the latter by the sword, both at Rome, 
and on the same day.* 

Nero had now gone through all the stages of his exe- 
crable life. His power was upheld only by terror, and 
by numerous troops of satellites whom he amply re- 
warded. At length, all mankind, whose oppressor he 
was, rose up against him, after Vindex in Gaul, and Galba 
in Spain, had given the signal of the general insurrection. 
The news, at first disregarded by Nero, very soon filled 
him with terror and rage. He proposed to send assassins 
into all the provinces, to kill the governors, the generals 
of armies and the exiles, to poison the senators at a feast, 
to set fire to the town in various parts, and at the same 
time to let loose all the wild beasts kept for the public 
shows, in order to prevent the inhabitants from extin- 
guishing the flames. He thought afterwards of raisino- 
new troops for his defence, or of moving by his tears the 
compassion of the army; and at length resolved to fly 
into Egypt. But he had neither time nor power to exe- 
cute any of his designs. 

The example of Vindex and Galba was readily followed 
throughout the empire, and even in the Capital itself, by 
the Praetorian guards. The tyrant then retired to a coun- 
try-house, four miles from Rome, the property of a certain 
Phaon, one of his freed-men. The senate, after havino- 
been silent and timid for so long a time, now ordered that 
he should be apprehended and put to an ignominious 
death. Nero, at the first intelligence of the fatal edict 
was struck with terror, and wept both at the approach of 
his last hour and at the loss of his musical voice. Whilst 
thus lamenting, he heard the sound of horses' feet, and 



* The fact of St. Peter having established his See and suffered mar- 
tyrdom in Rome, is incontrovertibly proved by the unanimous testi- 
mony of Christian authors, from the first ages ; viz. TertuUian, lib. de 
Prffiscr. c. 36; Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. II. c. 14 et 24; Lactantius, 
de morte persec. n. 2 ; Sulpit. Sever. Hist. Sacr. lib. II; St. Jerom, de 
script. Eccles.; St. Augustine, contra litteras Petil. lib. II; Serm. 296, 
etc. etc. 



56 MODERN HISTORY 



Part I. 



the noise of the soldiers sent to drag him from his re- 
treat, and already quite near the house. Preferring a 
voluntary death to the tortures with which he was threat- 
ened, he wished some of his attendants to embolden him, 
by setting him the example. As no one was disposed to 
be so complaisant, he drew a dagger, and applying it to 
his breast; " What a musician," said he, " the world is 
going to lose!" Still he hesitated: at length, with the 
help of Epaphroditus, his freedman, he stabbed himself 
and expired, in the thirty-first year of his age, and the 
fourteenth of his reign (a. d. 68); the very same day 
(the 11th of June) on which he had put his unfortunate 
wife Octavia to death, six years before. 

The family of Caesar Augustus became extinct by the 
death of Nero. St. Augustine assigns to him the first 
place in the catalogue of wicked emperors ;* an opinion 
which has been embraced by posterity : for, in the com- 
mon judgment of men, no greater odium can be thrown 
on any prince, even on a profligate tyrant, than to call 
him a second Nero. 



GALEA— OTHO— YITELLIUS.— A. c. 68—69. 

Galea, that governor of Spain whom we have already 
mentioned, experienced no difficulty in causing himself to 
be acknov\'l edged emperor. He was of noble extraction, 
venerable by his age, and distinguished by his abilities in 
inferior employments. But when emperor, his conduct 
answered neither the eminence of his dignity, nor public 
expectation. On the one hand, his excessive confidence 
in unworthy friends led him into many faults; on the 
other, his parsimony and severity provoked the hatred of 
the soldiers, who stabbed him in the middle of Rome, after 
he had reigned seven months. 

* De Civit. Dei, lib. V. c. xix. 



A. D. 68—69. 



GALEA OTHO VITELLIUS. 57 



Otho, a dissolute and ambitious man, who had been the 
chief leader of the conspiracy against Galba, succeeded 
him upon the throne. He was acknowledged only in the 
Capital and neighboring provinces, the legions of Ger- 
many having, about the same time, declared their com- 
mander Vitellius emperor. The two rivals had recourse 
to arms in support of their respective claims. Otho was 
successful for a short time only; his forces were par- 
tially overthrown at Bedriacum, a village near Cre- 
mona in Lombardy, and though he had still numerous 
armies at his disposal, he killed himself after a reign of 
three months ; the whole empire now declared for Vi- 
tellius. 

This however was not so much owing to the abilities of 
Vitellius himself, as to the exertions of his generals and 
the bravery of his troops. His personal merit consisted 
chiefly in eating and drinking. He took four abundant 
and costly meals every day. All countries and seas were 
laid under contribution, in order to furnish the most ex- 
quisite game and fish for his table. No repast could be 
offered to him below the value of four hundred thousand 
sesterces (about ten thousand dollars) ; so that even the 
richest citizens were ruined by the expenses which his 
visit occasioned. Lucius Vitellius, his brother, gave him 
a dinner in which two thousand fishes and seven thousand 
birds were served up at table. His guests were ruined 
both in their fortunes and their health by this uninter- 
rupted good cheer, and one of them, called Vibius Pris- 
cus, having contracted a disease which dispensed him with 
attending those repasts, congratulated himself, saying: 
*' I was undone, had I not fallen sick." 

The sovereign power, thus degraded by so many con- 
temptible princes, at last passed into better hands. The 
legions of the East, justly indignant at seeing those of the 
West and the Praetorians in Rome dispose of the empire 
at their pleasure, offered the crown to their own general 
Vespasian, a man of low birth, but of remarkable talents. 



58 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part I. 



He hesitated for a time, fearing the unhappy consequences 
tliat might possibly happen ; at length, he yielded to the 
advice and entreaties of his friends, and was acknow- 
ledged emperor by all the eastern provinces. But the 
main object was to induce the inhabitants of Rome and 
Italy to declare in his favor. As they continued to side 
with Vitellius, Vespasian resolved to subdue them by 
famine, and by stopping the convoys of provisions from 
Egypt. This was indeed a wise and prudent scheme, 
though it might have taken a long time to obtain full 
success ; but Antonius Primus, one of Vespasian's gene- 
rals, rendered it unnecessary, by the bold and decisive 
measure which he took to decide the quarrel at once. It 
is interesting to see how, in a few weeks, this general, full 
of ardor and activity, arrived from Illyria, surmounted 
all obstacles in his way, repeatedly defeated the Vitellian 
forces, and, pursuing his victorious career, attacked Rome 
itself, forced an entrance, and quickly terminated the 
contest, by annihilating the party of Vitellius. 

Primus entered Italy by the north, at the head of the 
Illyrican legions, and some auxiliaries from Maesia. His 
march was rapid, and met with little or no resistance, till 
he reached the neighborhood of Cremona, where he found 
himself opposed by those same legions of Germany, whose 
valor had placed Vitellius on the throne. Two of them 
formed a sort of van-guard, while six others were yet at 
a distance. Primus judged that the success of the whole 
campaign depended on preventing their junction, and 
fighting them separately. Accordingly, he took along 
with him four thousand horses, and leaving orders to the 
infantry to follow as speedily as possible, he advanced 
against the two legions. The victory was entirely his 
work. At the first attack, his soldiers, not expecting so 
vigorous a resistance, fled in disorder, notwithstanding the 
efforts of Primus to stop them. He appeared wherever 
there was extreme danger or some gleam of hope, pierced 
with his pike the standard-bearer whom he saw flying ; 



A. D. 63-69. GALEA — OTHO VITELLIUS. 59 

and taking the standard in his own hands, turned it to- 
wards the enemy. His intrepidity changed the fortune 
of the day. Shame at the thought of abandoning so brave 
a general kept around him about a hundred horsemen, and 
whilst they sustained the shock, their companions also 
returned to the field of battle. The Vitellians began to 
waver, were routed, and retired into the city of Cremona. 

In the evening, all the forces of Primus were assembled. 
Animated by their first success, they asked to be led 
without delay to the attack of the town ; nor could their 
ardor be checked until they received information that 
the six other Vitellian legions had just arrived, and were 
ready to renew the battle. Primus did not lose one in- 
stant: he arranged his troops, placed the auxiliaries in 
front; the legions, five in number, in the centre; the 
cavalry on the wings and rear ; and in this order waited 
for the enemy. 

The engagement became general towards nine o'clock 
at night; and, notwithstanding the confusion which dark- 
ness necessarily occasioned, was carried on with a fury 
scarcely to be conceived. Nearly the whole night, the 
issue was doubtful, though there seemed to be some dis- 
advantao;e on the side of Primus, whose leg-ions suffered 
dreadfully from the military engines of their opponents. 
The light of the rising moon began to turn the bloody 
contest in his favor. The shadows of bodies were pro- 
jected towards the Vitellians, who deceived by the appear- 
ance, and believing the enemy to be nearer, did not throw 
their darts far enough : whereas they themselves were 
clearly discerned by their foes who hurled their weapons 
with unerring aim.* 

No sooner could Primus distinguish objects, than he 



* Neutro inclinaverat fortuna, donee adulta nocte, luna surgens os- 
tenderet acies, falleretque. Sed Flavianis aequior a tergo : hinc majo- 
res equorum virorumque umbrae, et falso, ut in corpora, ictu, tela hostiiim 
citra cadebant : Vitelliani adverse lumine collucentes, velut ex occulto 
jaculantibus, incauti offerebantur.— Tact/. Histor.lib. Ill, n. xxiii. 



60 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part I. 



went through every rank, animating his troops, and with 
equal dexteritj? and success, availing himself of the rising 
of the sun : the soldiers of the third legion, who had served 
under Corbulo in Asia, saluted it with loud cries, accord- 
ing to the Syriac custom ; whence a rumor was spread, 
and obtained credit among the combatants, probably 
through a stratagem of Primus, that great reinforcements 
had come to his army. The Vitellians began to waver : 
Primus, perceiving this, pressed them with redoubled 
vigor, and breaking their ranks by a last effort, put them 
completely to flight. 

They were pursued with great slaughter, till they 
reached the camp that surrounded Cremona. In order to 
deprive them of this last resource, the victorious army re- 
solved to attack the camp without delay. This, indeed, 
offered almost insuperable difficulties, as it was defended 
by a whole army, and well fortified by a ditch, a para- 
pet, and powerful engines which threw with violence 
darts and stones. But nothing could check the ardor of 
the soldiers of Primus : they advanced towards the in- 
trenchments with their shields closed and raised over their 
heads; here again a fierce combat ensued. The assail- 
ants were exposed to an incessant shower of arrows and 
enormous stones from the Vitellian engines. Although 
wounded, bruised and repulsed, they renewed the attack, 
mounted upon each other's shoulders, wrested the swords 
from the hands of their opponents, leaped upon the ram- 
parts, or broke open the gates, and rushing into the camp, 
filled it in one moment with mangled bodies and streams 
of blood. 

These three victories were the work of twenty- four 
hours, and the fruit of the most obstinate courage ever 
displayed by Romans fighting against Romans. The third 
legion distinguished itself on that occasion in a particular 
manner, and maintained its former glory. But no glory 
was equal to that acquired by Primus in these actions : 
he had, as it were, by a single blow, commenced and 



A. D. 68-69. GALEA. — OTHO. — VITELLIUS. 61 

nearly finished the war, nor could the Vitellians ever re- 
gain their former ascendency. The city of Cremona, 
struck with terror, surrendered to the victors, and having 
unfortunately done so without previous conditions, was 
abandoned to plunder and destroyed by fire. All the West 
began to follow the example of the East, and to declare 
for Vespasian ; so that Rome and a few Italian provinces 
were all that now remained on the side of Vitellius, and 
even these but for a short time. 

After some transactions of minor importance, Primus 
vv^ith his victorious troops arrived before the walls of the 
Capital. Here also they were vigorously opposed; a se- 
ries of battles were fought at the gates, afterwards in the 
streets, and finally in the praetorian camp; these battles 
cost the lives of fifty thousand persons. The soldiers of 
Primus were every where triumphant, the Vitellians were 
driven to their last posts, and, though they still resisted 
with determined courage, being overpowered by numbers, 
all fell, with their faces turned towards the enemy. 

Vitellius, unworthy of such brave soldiers, shut himself 
up in a litter, and was carried to a house in a distant part 
of the town, from which he intended secretly to make his 
escape, and retire into Campania. But either fear and 
restlessness of mind, or the hope of kind treatment from 
the conquerors, induced him to return to his palace; he 
found it changed into a vast solitude, and the apartments 
closed, all his officers and servants having fled. Wearv 
of wandering about, he concealed himself behind a bed in 
the porter's room, but was soon discovered by a party of 
the victorious soldiers. Notwithstanding his entreaties, 
they led him away with his hands tied behind him, his 
clothes torn, and a cord about his neck, not one person 
showing him the least compassion. Nay more, some were 
so inhuman as to prick his chin with their swords, to 
force him to raise his head and see his statues overthrown. 
He was dragged in this manner to the common dung-hill, 
where they put him to death, and then threw his body into 
6 



62 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part I. 



the Tiber. He had reigned eight months, reckoning from 
the death of Otho, who himself had reigned only three : 
so that the same year (a. d. 69) saw four successive em- 
perors, viz : Galba, who died in January, Otho in April, 
Vitellius in December, and Vespasian who was left sole 
master before the end of the month. 



VESPASIAN.— A. D. 69—79. 

The year following (a. d. 70) was rendered famous by 
the entire overthrow of the Jews, and by the destruction 
of their nation, city and temple.* 

From the time when Judea, like so many other countries 
of the East, after having been subdued by the Romans, 
was formed into a province of the empire, the Jews al- 
ways bore the yoke with extreme reluctance. Their de- 
sire" to shake it off was continually increased by the 
tyranny and extortions of the Roman governors. Under 
Florus, the last governor, their patience was completely 
exhausted, and public animosity being raised to its highest 
pitch, they rose in arms, in the year 66, two years before 
the death of Nero. 

Their first endeavors were generally successful. They 
defeated the Romans, killed many of them, and repulsed 
Cestius Gallus, the governor of Syria, who had come to 
the assistance of Florus. But affairs on each side assumed 
a very different aspect, when Vespasian received from 
Nero the charge of prosecuting the war against the Jews. 
Under this able general, the Romans quickly recovered 
their usual superiority. Nearly the whole of Galilee and 
Judea was subdued in two campaigns, and, although the 
insurgents fought in many places with desperate valor, 
Vespasian drove them from their positions, and ap- 
proached Jerusalem. He then prepared to lay siege to 
this Capital ; but, being at that time proclaimed emperor, 

* See note B. 



A. D. 69-79. 



VESPASIAN. 63 



he departed for Egypt, and left to his son Titus the con- 
duct of the war. 

Jerusalem, one of the principal cities of the East, was 
very difficult of access. Its high position on two moun- 
tains, a double, even treble enclosure of strong walls and 
towers where the approach was naturally easier, and many 
other fortifications, would have rendered it unconquerable, 
had not the obstinacy and blindness of its inhabitants 
forced, as it were, the justice of God to achieve their ruin. 
The Roman legions commanded by Titus encamped round 
the city towards the beginning of April, and, as this was 
about Easter, one of the principal solemnities of the 
Jews, an immense multitude of people found themselves 
shut up as in a prison. Their provisions were soon con- 
sumed, and famine began to exercise its ravages. More- 
over, there were in the town two or three furious factions, 
which, it is true, united their efforts to oppose the assaults 
of the Romans, but, as soon as the danger was over, 
quarrelled and fought among themselves. They did not 
perhaps let one day pass, without committing new cruel- 
ties, and staining with blood the streets of the city or the 
pavements of the temple. 

The siege lasted until September, and during the whole 
time, Titus unceasingly called upon the wretched inhabi- 
tants to surrender, giving them a full assurance of pardon. 
All was useless; they defended every inch of ground and 
opposed every attack with such obstinate fury, that the 
besiegers sometimes despaired of success ; once, espe- 
cially, when, after having labored for seventeen days to 
prepare battering rams and other engines of war, they 
could not prevent their being burnt and destroyed by the 
Jews in the space of a few hours. Titus himself, though 
he had already obtained possession of the first and second 
walls, was at a loss how to act in order to repair this loss. 
After much deliberation, he resolved to change, in some 
particulars, his former plan of attack, and the soldiers as 
well as officers armed themselves with new courage for 
the execution of his designs. By his orders, they built 



64 MODERN HISTORY. P^jti. 

all round the city, six miles in circumference, a wall for- 
tified bj thirteen towers, to prevent the escape of the 
rebels and the introduction of provisions into the town. 
Through the wonderful activity of the Romans, the work 
was finished in three days. 

From that time especially, the famine raged most dread- 
fully in Jerusalem. The greater part of its inhabitants 
were reduced to eat such things as they could not behold 
without horror. The leather of their shoes and shields, 
dried hay, withered herbs, were food which they would 
greedily devour. The soldiers of each faction violently 
entered the houses, and visited every corner, to discover 
provisions. If they found any, they wrested it from the 
ov/ners; if they found none, they put those unfortunate 
people to the rack, and made them sufter cruel torments, 
in order to make them deliver what they had concealed. 
They carried their barbarity so far as to take from the 
poorest among the people some herbs and grain which 
they had collected during the night, outside of the walls, 
at the risk of their lives, without leaving them a small 
part which they asked in the name of God. Neither wo- 
men nor little children were spared, when found with a 
little food in their hands. 

And this was not done by the soldiers only. All hearts 
were steeled against the feelings of humanity and com- 
passion. Husbands would snatch meat from their wives ; 
children would wrest it from their parents ; and what al- 
most surpasses belief, mothers would deprive their little 
infants of the necessaries of life. Nay more,, one of them 
went so far as to deprive of life itself her little child, in 
order to eat its flesh, and prolong her own existence by 
that horrid sustenance. The houses seemed to be changed 
into graves, most of them being filled with the dead 
and dying. The streets were strewed with so many 
corpses, which blocked up the way, that an order was 
given by the chiefs of the rebels, to gather them into great 
heaps in some uninhabited buildings, or to throw them 
from the w^all into the valley. More than six hun- 



A. D. 69—79. 



VESPASIAN. 6d 



dred thousand bodies were thus thrown, and, at one gate 
only, there were one hundred and sixteen thousand in the 
space of three months. As to the survivors, they resem- 
bled so many skeletons or walking ghosts : the whole 
city presented nothing but desolation and the image of 
death. 

When the Romans heard these things, some would not 
believe them ; others were moved to compassion ; but the 
greater number inflamed with indignation, became still 
more animated against the Jewish people than they were 
before. Titus heaved a deep sigh, and called heaven to 
witness that he was not the author of such horrid mise- 
ries ; since he had frequently, but in vain, offered a full 
pardon to the Jews if they would surrender. He there- 
fore determined to push the siege with fresh vigor, this 
being the only means left to subdue those furious rebels. 
New and repeated assaults took place, in which extraor- 
dinary efforts were made, and many persons killed on 
each side ; at length, the Romans carried by storm the 
third wall, and the lower part of the town, and approached 
the galleries and porticos of the temple, which they set on 
fire. 

It was the wish of Titus to save the temple ; but one of 
the soldiers, says the historian Josephus, hurried on by a 
certain divine impulse, took a fire-brand, and being lifted 
up by another soldier, threw it into one of the inner rooms 
contiguous to the sanctuary. The flames immediately 
rose. In vain did the Jews endeavor to extinguish them ; 
in vain did Titus also make the most strenuous efforts to 
stop the conflagration : in spite of both the conqueror and 
the conquered, the fire spread with unusual rapidity. At 
the same time, the legions, fond of pillage, and enraged 
by the long resistance they had met with, slew all who 
had taken refuge in the temple and the galleries. The 
whole space was soon covered with dead bodies, over 
which the Romans advanced in pursuit of the Jews who 
fled before them, and streams of blood were running 
6^ 



66 MODERN HISTORY 



Part: 



through the flames. The conflagration was so violent, and 
the building so extensive, that the hill upon which it stood 
seemed all on fire ; whilst the outcries of an immense 
number of Jews, prolonged by the neighboring echoes, 
were heard on all sides, and increased the horror of the 
scene. 

The fatal day was come : that splendid temple, the most 
celebrated in the universe, and the centre of the True 
Religion before the coming of Christ, was in a few hours 
reduced to ashes and a heap of ruins. It perished after a 
duration of six hundred years, and, by a striking occur- 
rence, was consumed by fire in the same month and on 
the same day (the tenth of August) on which the former 
temple, built by Solomon, was burnt by Nabuchodonosor, 
king of Babylon. 

Althouo;h the rebels still made some resistance in the 
upper part of the town, Titus found no difficulty in ex- 
pelling them from all the positions which they occupied. 
The Romans completed the reduction of Jerusalem on the 
eighth of September, and put every thing to fire and sword. 
What the flames had spared, was entirely demolished, and 
levelled with the ground. Not a stone was left upon a 
stone, in the whole city ; only some parts of the western 
wall and three remarkable towers were preserved, both 
for the sake of the Roman garrison which was to be left 
in Judea, and as monuments of so signal a victory. The 
booty, notwithstanding the ravages of the fire, was so 
great, that gold lost half its value in the neighboring pro- 
vinces. Eleven hundred thousand Jews perished during 
the siege, ninety-seven thousand were made prisoners, 
and condemned, some to hard labor, others to death; 
whilst many were sold at a low price, and dispersed all 
over the earth. 

Thus were the predictions of our Lord concerning the 
utter destruction of Jerusalem, entirely fulfilled.* It was 

* Matt. XXIV. — Mark, xiii. — Luke, xix, xxi, xxiv. 



A. D. 69—79. 



VESPASIAN. 67 



a manifest punishment of the crime of deicide, which the 
Jews had committed thirty-seven years before; and of 
the awful imprecation which they had uttered, with one 
voice, during his passion : ** His blood be upon us, and 
upon our children."* Titus himself, though a heathen, 
viewing all the circumstances of their disaster, the most 
extraordinary that ever befell a nation, confessed that he 
was only the instrument of divine vengeance.! 

This the Jews also would have acknowledged, had they 
not hardened their hearts, and shut their eyes against the 
light. During many years before the war, they were 
admonished of their impending calamity by prodigies 
more and more terrific. All their doctors confess that 
strange phenomena were daily seen in the temple; in so 
much, that a famous Rabbin cried out one day: "0 tem- 
ple ! temple ! What is it that moves thee, and why art 
thou thus terrified ?" 

In the year immediately preceding the beginning of 
hostilities between the Jews and Romans, on Easter-Day, 
a gate of the inner court of the temple, all of brass, and 
so heavy that twenty men could scarcely move it, was 
seen to open of its own accord. Some weeks later, 
chariots and troops of soldiers in their armor, were be- 
held running among the clouds, and surrounding the cities. 

What is more striking than the noise heard in the 
sanctuary on the day of Pentecost, and that audible voice 
which issued from the inmost recess of that sacred place : 
** Let us go hence, let us go hence ?" The holy Angels, 
guardians of the temple, loudly declared that they were 
forsaking it, because Almighty God, who had there estab- 
lished his abode during so many ages, had now given it up 
to reprobation. 

JosephusJ and Tacitus§ have both related these prodi- 



* Matth. XXVIII, 25. 

t Josephtis, De bello Judaico, lib. VI., Philost. vit. Apoll. Tyan. lib. VI. 

X Josephus, De bello Judaico, lib. VI. . 

§ Tacitus, histor, lib. V. n. xiii. 



6S MODERN HISTORY. Parti. 

gies, which therefore cannot be reasonably doubted. The 
following one, although mentioned by Josephus only, must 
however appear the least questionable of all, as having 
been visible to the whole people. Four years before the 
war commenced, a certain man going up from the country 
to Jerusalem for the feast of the Tabernacle,* suddenly 
began to cry out: " A voice from the east, a voice from 
the west, a voice from the four winds ; a voice against 
the temple and against Jerusalem ; a voice against all 
the people!" From that time he ceased not crying day 
and night : " wo, wo to Jerusalem !" He redoubled his 
cries on the festival-days. No other words fell from his 
lips; those who pitied him, those who rebuked him, those 
who gave him the necessaries of life, could never obtain 
from him any thing but this terrible sentence : *' wo to 
Jerusalem!" He was arrested, tried by the magistrates, 
and condemned to be scourged : at every question, and 
at every lash, he constantly answered, without ever com- 
plaining of his sufferings; *' wo to Jerusalem!" Being 
dismissed as a madman, he ran up and down the whole 
country, incessantly repeating the same awful prediction, 
*' wo to Jerusalem !" For seven years he continued to cry 
out in this manner, without relaxation, the strength of his 
voice remaining ever the same. During the siege of Je- 
rusalem, he shut himself up in the city, going incessantly 
round the walls, and crying with all his might: "wo to 
the temple ! wo to the city ! wo to all the people !" at last 
he added, " wo to myself!" and was immediately carried 
off by a stone shot from an engine; thus having been, at 
the same time, a prophet, a witness, and a visible proof of 
the divine vengeance lying heavy upon his whole nation. 
Shortly after the destruction of Jerusalem, Titus went 
by land to Alexandria, and thence by sea to Rome. The 
emperor, his father, went forward from the city to meet 

* Thus called, from the custom of the Jews to make on that feast 
tabernacles or tents, as a memorial of their having dwelt under tents for 
forty years in the desert. 



A. D. 69-79. VESPASIAN. 69 

him; and they enjoyed together the honors of a magnifi- 
cent triumph, for the successful conclusion of the Jewish 
war. 

The reign of Vespasian henceforward passed in peace. 
This wise prince restored the empire to its ancient splen- 
dor. He respected the laws, and caused them to be re- 
spected by others ; enforced the rules of military disci- 
pline ; prevented or punished oppression ; encouraged 
virtue and talents. The luxury of the Roman tables was 
an inveterate evil, and stronger than all laws ; Vespasian 
checked it by his example; private individuals being 
ashamed to indulge in extravagant expenses, whilst their 
emperor declared himself a lover of plainness and sim- 
plicity. Whatever savored of effeminacy, so highly dis- 
pleased him, that being one day accosted by a young man 
strongly perfumed, who came to thank him for a prefer- 
ment which he had lately obtained ; " I had rather you 
smelt of garlic," said Vespasian, with a stern and con- 
temptuous look; and immediately revoked his commission. 

He was also very careful to procure a right and speedy 
administration of justice. The pleadings frequently took 
place before him ; his tribunal was public, and his judg- 
ments obtained almost general approbation. Being not 
less beneficent than just, the disasters which Rome and 
other cities experienced, were the objects of his solici- 
tude. Amiable and cheerful with his friends, merciful to 
his enemies, good, humane, and aifable to all, he gave free 
access to his palace, the gates of which were constantly 
open ; and he was seen to shed tears over criminals whom 
he could not save from punishment. 

On one occasion only, his usual clemency disappeared. 
A certain Sabinus had assumed in Gaul the title of Cssar. 
He was defeated towards the beginning of Vespasian's 
reign, and remained for many years concealed in a cavern, 
where he and his family were supported by some faithful 
friends ; he was at length discovered, and brought to 
Rome. Eponina, his wife, who had never abandoned him. 



70 MODERN HISTORY. 



Parti. 



threw herself at the emperor's feet, and by her supplica- 
tions and tears, endeavored to excite his compassion. 
Vespasian was indeed moved with pity, and even sensi- 
bly affected ; but his emotion yielded to the severity of his 
political principles, and both Eponina and Sabinus were 
condemned to death. No one knew the motives of a rigor 
so unnecessary, at least in appearance, and which leaves 
a blot on the memory of so good an emperor. 

He is also accused of too great a love of money. The 
charge may be true in some respects ; but we ought not 
to forget that Vespasian ever made a noble and generous 
use of his revenues. Besides other instances of his libe- 
rality ; some of which have been already mentioned, he 
was the first who gave pensions to the professors of Greek 
and Latin eloquence at Rom.e. He attracted to that city 
the best scholars and ablest workmen of the time, without 
however disregarding those of inferior merit or hurting 
their interests. One of the former, an excellent machi- 
nist, having offered to transport heavy burdens at a small 
expense, by machines of his invention, the emperor re- 
warded him well for the offer, but would not make use of 
it; *' for," said he, " we must not deprive the poor of their 
means of subsistence." 

It was by such amiable qualities, and by repeated acts of 
good government, that Vespasian deserved the title of 
father of his country, which was conferred on him nearly 
in the same manner as it had been on Augustus. Though 
advanced in age, he continued to administer the public 
affairs to the end of his life, and gave audience even in 
his last sickness. He was however sensible of the dan- 
ger of his situation, and said one day : " It seems to me 
I am going to become a god ;" thus deriding, in an inge- 
nious manner, the apotheosis which would follow his death. 
When he felt that he had but few moments to live, he was 
heard to say ; '* It is proper that an emperor should die 
standing ; and, making an effort to rise, he expired in the 



A. D. 79-81. TITUS. 71 

arms of those who supported him, in the seventieth year 
of his life, and tenth of his reign (a. d. 79). 

Under him was made the last census of the Roman 
citizens. In Italy alone, there were found, according to 
Pliny, fifty-four persons at least a hundred years old. 
Ten had reached the age of one hundred and twenty-five 
or thirty years, three the age of one hundred and forty ; 
and two that of one hundred and fifty. 



TITUS.— A. D. 79—81. 

Vespasian was succeeded by his elder son Titus, a 
most excellent prince, whose full eulogium is comprised 
in the appellation of the Delight of Mankind^ under which 
he is known. From the time of his accession to the throne, 
nothing appeared in him but a wonderful generosity and 
benevolence, from which his very bitterest enemies were 
not excluded. Two patricians being convicted of a con- 
spiracy against him, he granted them a full pardon, and 
had the kind attention to send a messenger to the mother 
of one of them, to assure her that her son had nothing to 
fear from his resentment. Moreover, he invited the two 
guilty persons to sup with him, and, on the following day, 
at an exhibition of gladiators, made them sit by his side, 
and hold, for some time, the arms of the combatants, 
which were brought to him according to custom. 

Titus never sent away any person discontented, never, 
at least, without some hope and consolation ; saying that 
no one should go sorrowful from his prince. Every one 
knows in what manner he once expressed his regret at 
having let a day pass without doing some good office : 
•* My friends," said he, *' I have lost a day;" an expres- 
sion worthy of being transmitted to the latest posterity, 
and infinitely more glorious than all the victories of Alex- 
ander and Julius Csesar. 

The manifold disasters and calamitous events which 



72 MODERN HISTORY. Parti. 

happened during the reign of Titus, afforded him con- 
tinual opportunities to display his beneficence. The most 
dreadful of those visitations was an eruption of Mount 
Vesuvius in Italy. Even the mere forerunners of it were 
terrific : a violent earthquake, subterraneous sounds like 
thunder, the soil burning, the sea foaming, the heavens on 
fire ; all was calculated to fill every bosom with dread 
and consternation. Then, for three days, the volcano 
belched forth with terrific violence, so great a quantity of 
hot ashes, large stones, and lurid flame, that the day was 
obscured, the sun was darkened, and the world seemed to 
be returning to its pristine chaos. 

Pliny the naturalist, or the elder, one of the most 
learned and laborious writers of antiquity, was at that 
time the commander of the Roman fleet at Misenum, a 
promontory at the distance of twenty or twenty-five miles 
from Mount Vesuvius. He saw the beginning of the erup- 
tion, without knowing exactly what it was. Desirous to 
have a nearer view of the phenomenon, he advanced on 
board a galley towards the volcano. Having landed, he 
found every thing in strange confusion, a new promontory 
formed by the violence of the earthquake, and numbers 
of people flying on all sides. The continual eruption of 
stones, ashes and smoke from the volcano, increased the 
awful obscurity of the night. The danger increased, so 
tliat Pliny himself, notwithstanding his intrepidity, wished 
to return to his ship. At that very moment, there burst 
forth a sulphurous vapor accompanied with flames: all 
ran from the imminent danger ; but Pliny, having a weak 
breast, could not resist the sufibcating exhalation, and fell 
dead on the spot. His body was found two days after, 
without any external injury. 

In the meanwhile, Pliny the younger, afterwards so 
famous for his eloquence, was with his mother at Mise- 
num, in their dwelling near the sea. Though distant from 
the volcano, they found themselves exposed, with the 
other inhabitants of the town, to great perils, from the 



A, D. 79—81. 



TITUS, 73 



violence of the earthquake, and the clouds of smoke and 
ashes, which were carried to a great distance in different 
directions. Pliny's mother exhorted him to save his life 
by flight, saying that her advanced age and infirmities did 
not permit her to make her escape. But Pliny would never 
consent to the separation ; she was prevailed upon to fol- 
low him, and they w^ent together, accompanied by a great 
crowd of people. The day v/as changed into the darkest 
night; nothing guided their trembling steps, except the 
dismal flames which from time to time flickered on the 
top of the mountain. They were frequently covered with 
ashes ; even the flame seemed to advance towards them ; 
it did not however reach them, and they had the good for- 
tune to escape. 

When the eruption was over, the surrounding country 
presented a scene of desolation. The cities of Pompeii 
and Herculaneum were buried under heaps of ashes, and 
remained so for more than sixteen hundred years, until the 
last century, when the people of that country, whilst en- 
gaged in digging wells and quarries, discovered them at 
the depth of many feet beneath the surface. Temples 
and other buildings have been found there, with statues, 
inscriptions, vessels, even fruits, olives, wheat and bread, 
preserved in the cement and condensed lava which cov- 
ered them at the time of the eruption. The inhabitants 
had very probably withdrawn to a distance ; hence the 
loss of these two cities could not be deemed in itself a 
very great disaster : but the volcanic substances with which 
the whole country was now overspread, occasioned so 
dreadful a pestilence throughout Italy, that in Rome it 
carried off ten thousand persons every day for a consid- 
erable space of time. In fine, a terrible conflagration 
added its ravages to those caused by the pestilence, and 
consumed some of the finest quarters of that city. 

Amidst so many disasters, Titus not only acted the 
part of a good prince, but also evinced the affection 
of a tender father for his distressed children. In order 
7 



74 MODERN HISTORY. Pa,jj 

to repair, as far as possible, both public and private losses, 
he spared neither the treasure of the empire, nor his own 
money. He parted even with his jewels and the orna- 
ments of his palace, to afford the sufferers every allevia- 
tion in his power. Unfortunately he reigned only two 
years, and died at the age of forty-one (a. d. 81). Many 
believed that his death had been procured, or at least ac- 
celerated by his wicked brother Domitian. It was so 
generally and so deeply lamented, not only in Rome, but 
also in the provinces, that each family seemed to have lost 
a son or a father. 

DOMITIAN.— A. D. 81—96. 

It is scarcely possible to find a more striking contrast 
in the character and opinions of two successive princes, 
than is presented by Titus and Domitian. The new em- 
peror, far from imitating the virtues of his deceased 
brother, abandoned himself to the most degrading excesses. 
He was careful, however, to conceal his wickedness, until 
he had, like other tyrants, confirmed his authority among 
the people, by several acts of justice, and a prudent man- 
agement of public affairs. 

The first and most distino;uished personage that had to 
suffer from his suspicious policy, was Julius Agricola, the 
Roman governor of Great Britain. This great man had 
completed the subjugation of that country,* more by mild- 
ness and prudence, than by the terror of his arms. He still 
continued to govern it with great honor, when Domitian, 
jealous of his glory, recalled him to Rome, and repaid his 
eminent services with coldness and ingratitude. Agricola, 
for fear of giving umbrage to the tyrant, withdrew from 
public life. He died some years after, excluded from dig- 
nities and public employments, but preserving pure and 

* Not including Scotland, which never was entirely subdued ; much 
less Ireland, which was not even attacked by the Romans. 



^.D. 81-96. DOMITIAN. 75 

entire the fame of his talents and virtue. His life was 
written by his son-in-law, Tacitus, in a manner which 
does honor to both the conqueror and the historian. 

Most of the other wars during Domitian's reign, those 
especially which he conducted in person, proved unsuc- 
cessful. He was defeated by the Germans, concluded a 
disgraceful peace with the Dacians, and yet had the impu- 
dence to boast in Rome of his pretended exploits, for 
which he caused a triumph to be decreed. His only vic- 
tories were over helpless insects. He frequently shut 
himself in his chamber, and spent his time in killing flies 
with a sharp bodkin. Hence a certain Vibius Crispus 
being asked if any one was with the emperor, aptly re- 
plied : *' Not so much as a fly." 

Under this capricious tyrant, capital punishments were 
renewed, for a variety of pretexts, against the first per- 
sonages of the state. Nor were pretexts ever wanted. 
To be rich, or of noble extraction, was a crime. An equal 
danger awaited those who enjoyed honors and those who 
enjoyed them not: above all, conspicuous virtue and 
merit almost infallibly proved the ruin of their possessors. 
This was the case particularly with Christians. Domitian 
excited against them the second general persecution, in 
which he spared neither his own relations, nor the ad- 
vanced age of St. John the Evangelist. This venerable 
apostle was brought from Epltesus to Rome, and plunged 
into a caldron of boiling oil, from which he came forth 
unhurt, and even stronger than before.* The emperor 
then banished him to the small island of Patmos in the 
Archipelago, where the holy apostle wrote his Apoca- 
lypse, or Book of Revelations. After the death of Do- 
mitian, he returned to Ephesus, wrote his Gospel, at the 
request of the bishops of Asia, and died towards the end 
of the first century, being nearly a hundred years old. 

Not less impious than wicked, Domitian wished, after 

* TertuUian, De prescript. 36. — St. Jerom, lib. advers. Jovinianum. 



76 MODERN HISTORY 



Part I. 



the example of Caligula, to be considered and honored as 
a god; to have temples erected in his honor, and victims 
to be sacrificed to his statue. Next to this arrogant and 
sacrilegious pride, refined cruelty seemed to be his pre- 
dominant characteristic. He delighted in making people 
suffer, and in feasting his eyes with the sight of their tor- 
ments. Not satisfied with patting to death a multitude 
of senators, he resolved to frighten the others, and for 
this purpose, contrived a scheme worthy of a tyrant. He 
invited them to supper, and, as they arrived, had them 
conducted from the gate of the palace to an apartment 
hung with black, where every thing presented the image 
of death. By the glimmering of melancholy lamps, they 
perceived as many coffins as there were guests, with the 
name of each inscribed in large characters. A num- 
ber of boys, whose skins were darkened, danced around 
the room. A mournful silence reigned in the whole as- 
sembly, and every one believed that his last hour was 
come. When their terror was at its height, the emperor 
dismissed them all with presents. 

Domitian, by &uch scenes, was perhaps desirous to make 
others feel the excruciating anguish of mind which he him- 
self experienced. Every thing gave him offence ; and he 
was continually tormented with the fear of being sur- 
rounded by assassins. He had the gallery in which he 
usually walked, overlaid with stone which reflected ob- 
jects like a mirror, that he might see those who should 
attempt to attack him from behind. He entertained un- 
ceasing apprehensions, especially, it is said, of a certain 
day (the eighteenth of September), and of a certain hour 
of that day (eleven o'clock in the morning). But neither 
his apprehensions, nor the precautions which he took to 
screen himself from danger, were able to prolong his life : 
that very day and hour, he was murdered in his apart- 
ment by some officers of the palace, who either knew 
that their own death had been decreed by him, or other- 
wise dreaded the effects of his resentment. Some histo- 



A. D. 81-96. 



NERVA TRAJAN. 77 



rians relate that he had been forewarned of the impend- 
ing evil; and also that the famous magician, Appollonius 
Tyanensis, who was then at Ephesus, knew the emperor's 
death at the moment it happened, and announced it in 
these words : ** Strike, strike the tyrant." But this ac- 
count seems rather uncertain. 

Many have drawn a parallel between Domitian and 
Nero: but a more exact comparison might be made be- 
tween the former and Tiberius, whose sullenness of tem- 
per, malice, cruelty and dissimulation, he possessed in a 
high degree, as Tillemont justly observes.* He died in 
the sixteenth year of his reign, and the forty-fifth of his 
life (a.'d. 96), and was the last of those emperors who 
have been called the Twelve Caesars. 



NERVA— TRAJAN.— A. d. 96—117. 

Nerva, a venerable old man, was unanimously pro- 
claimed emperor by the army, the senate and the people. 
During his reign of only sixteen months, though not al- 
ways successful, he did much good by hia personal exer- 
tions, and still more efficaciously promoted the interest of 
the empire, by the selection of Trajan for his colleague 
and successor. He died shortly after (a. d. 98). 

Trajan was a native of Italica or Seville in Spain, and 
belonged to a family more ancient than illustrious. Pos- 
sessed of an excellent constitution, an engaging and 
noble countenance, and great experience added to his 
natural abilities, he was moreover in that maturity of age 
which is so desirable for the government of a vast empire. 
He received the news of his election, whilst commanding 
the Roman troops in Germany : this produced no change 
in his character and conduct. He sincerely believed and 
publicly declared himself to be not less bound than the 

* Histoire des Emperenrs, 2d vol. p. 64. 

7* 



78 MODERN HISTORY. 



Fart I. 



lowest citizen to observe the laws. Other emperors had held 
the same language ; but what Trajan promised to be, that he 
in reality was. He seemed to retain his rank for the sole 
purpose of preventing anarchy, and, whenever his prero- 
gatives clashed with the true interest of the people, he 
diminished them without hesitation. Hence the surname 
of Optimus was given him by unanimous consent. 

He carefully attended both to the embellishment of the 
Capital and to the utility of the provinces. In Rome, the 
famous Trajan Square and Column ; in Pannonia, a bridge, 
more than three thousand feet long, thrown over the 
Danube ; a road uniting, as it were, the two extremities 
of the empire, and reaching from Gaul as far as the Eux- 
ine sea; and many other public works and buildings, were 
striking instances of the grandeur of his views. 

Fully convinced that haughtiness conciliates neith- 
er affection nor esteem, and that condescension can be 
well allied to dignity, he lived with his people, not as a 
monarch with his subjects, but like a father in the midst 
of beloved children. His palace was open to persons of 
all conditions ; he listened with patience, corrected with 
gentleness, and, like Titus, wished no one to go discon- 
tented from his presence. As his friends one day repre- 
sented to him that he carried indulgence and kindness too 
far ; " I must," answered he, " behave towards every one, 
as I desired that an emperor should behave towards me,, 
when I was a private citizen." 

With regard to military talents, Trajan was, beyond 
comparison, the greatest commander of his age, and equal 
to the most illustrious generals of antiquity. Vigilant 
and indefatigable, he marched on foot, even when empe- 
ror, at the head of his troops, and in this manner passed 
over vast tracts of country, without using horse or chariot. 
Equally attentive to reward noble actions and maintain 
strict discipline, he constantly encouraged both by his 
own example. 

So great a prince easily revived the warlike spirit of 



A. D. 96-117. 



NERVA TRAJAN. 79 



the Roman legions. He led them first against the Da- 
cians, and triumphed twice over king Decebalus, who had 
imposed a sort of tribute on Domitian. Passing after- 
wards into Asia, he subdued Assyria, Mesopotamia, and 
other countries the names of which were before unknown 
at Rome. These conquests however proved more brilliant 
than solid. The new subjects of the empire availed 
themselves of the first opportunity to shake off the yoke. 
Trajan himself beheld the first success of their efforts, and 
was unable to check it, either for want of time, or on ac- 
count of other obstacles. He died at Selinontes in Cili- 
cia, whilst on his journey to Rome, after having reigned 
-nearly twenty years (a. d. 117). 

No Roman emperor left a greater reputation for princely 
virtue and goodness. For a long time after his death, the 
best wish that the Romans believed they could offer to 
any new emperor, was that he should be happier even than 
Caesar Augustus, and better than Trajan. His goodness 
however did not extend to the Christians, who were again 
persecuted under his reign. Moreover, his private life 
was far from being blameless : on the contrary, his intem- 
perance and infamous debaucheries show well what we 
must think of the greatest men that paganism produced, 
even those who have been most admired for their virtues. 

Besides Quintilian and Juvenal, who flourished about 
this time, the most celebrated writers that lived under 
Trajan were, Tacitus the historian, and Pliny the Youno-er. 
Both of them were raised to eminent dignities, and yet 
acquired less glory from their high station than from their 
integrity and eloquence. They frequently pleaded at the 
bar, and were always admired, Tacitus, for the gravity 
and nobleness of his diction, Pliny, for his elegance and 
facility, which were so great that he could speak five or six 
hours in succession, without fatiguing any one but himself. 
He has left ten books of Letters, and a Panegyric of Tra- 
jan. The writings of Tacitus consist chiefly of Histories 
and Annals relating to the first emperors of Rome ; several 



80 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part I. 



books of his works are lost, to the great detriment of Latin 
literature. 

Tacitus and Plinj, instead of entertaining anj feeling 
of jealousy against each other, were, on the contrary, sin- 
cere and intimate friends. Public opinion made no dis- 
tinction between them, and in social intercourse, the name 
of the one could scarcely be mentioned without the name 
of the other. It once happened that Tacitus, being at a pub- 
lic game, had a long conversation on literary matters with 
a foreigner sitting by his side, and who did not know him 
personally. At last, the foreigner asked him who he was. 
"You know me," said Tacitus, "from my writings." 
"Then vou are Tacitus or Pliny," said the stranger; 
showing by that sudden reply, that the mere mention of 
literature was associated, at that epoch, with the names of 
these two illustrious writers and friends. 

In their time, a young boy, called Valerius Pudens, 
obtained, at the age of thirteen, the premium of poetry at 
the Capitolian games (a. d. 106). 



ADRIAN— A. D. 117—138. 

Like Trajan, Adrian, his nephew and successor, united 
with a wretched life in private, great abilities for govern- 
ment; but his conduct was far difterent from that of his 
predecessor. Being as great a lover of peace as Trajan 
had been of military glory, he reduced the Roman do- 
minions to their former limits, and abandoned all the con- 
quests lately made in countries beyond the great river 
Euphrates. His utmost care, during the whole of his 
reign, was to preserve peace with the neighboring nations. 

To obtain this desired end, he employed two principal 
means. The first, rather an impolitic one, was to induce, 
by considerable presents, the tribes of Pannonia and Ger- 
many not to attack the empire. The second, much more 
worthy of a great prince, was to keep the troops always 



A. D. 117—138. 



ADRIAN. 81 



in good order, and ever ready to oppose and defeat every 
attempt at invasion. For that purpose, he took upon him- 
self the task of visiting all the camps of the legions scat- 
tered throughout the empire, in order to examine in what 
manner discipline was every where observed, and what 
was the state of the arms, engines of war, fortifications, 
ammunition, and, in a word, of every thing connected with 
the military department. 

During these visits, the emperor required that an ac- 
count should be given him of the conduct of the officers 
and soldiers ; which being done, he appropriately distri- 
buted praises and reproaches, rewards and punishments ; 
and, in the appointment of military offices, granted noth- 
ing to favor, but every thing to virtue, merit and expe- 
rience. He animated the military exercises by his vigi- 
lance, his presence, his example. Whatever promoted or 
favored eft'eminacy among the troops, he suppressed with 
inexorable severity, and showed in his own person a per- 
fect pattern of military discipline, living with the soldiers 
as one of them, using the most common food, wearing a 
plain dress and carrying heavy arms, braving the incon- 
veniences of the various climes and seasons, and walking, 
with his head uncovered, through the snow of the Alps, 
as well as through the burning sands of Africa. 

By such efficacious means Adrian revived the strictness 
of ancient discipline among the troops, making himself 
however very dear to them by his kindness, affiibility and 
opportune favors. He paid great attention to the welfare 
of the soldiers, especially of those advanced in years, 
whom he honorably dismissed in due time, and of those 
who were sick, whom he was accustomed to visit in their 
tents or lodgings. 

The civil affi\irs were not less carefully attended to by 
Adrian. It was one of his maxims, that an emperor ought 
to be like the sun, which by its regular course illuminates 
and vivifies all the regions of the earth. He spent many 
years in travelling through the various provinces of the 



82 



MODERN HISTORY. p^rti. 



empire, reforming abuses, repairing what had been injured, 
appointing good governors, and inflicting punishments on 
those who had abused their power. He likewise, by his 
own example and assiduity, improved and facilitated the 
administration of justice, for this purpose causing a col- 
lection to be made of the best ancient laws, and enacting 
wise statutes against fraudulent bankrupts, and masters 
who were cruel towards their slaves. 

His conduct towards the senate was habitually full of 
deference and respect ; towards the people, condescend- 
ing but firm; towards the allies and subjects of the em- 
pire, kind and liberal. He remitted the whole sum due 
to the exchequer, nine hundred millions of sesterces 
(nearly twenty-five millions of dollars), and publicly burnt 
all the books and records which might afterwards be pro- 
duced to revive that debt. This action of Adrian did him 
great honor, and was justly celebrated by inscriptions and 
monuments. On the whole, although his government 
proved fatal to some illustrious persons whom he har- 
assed and persecuted, it was highly beneficial to the 
state. On many particular occasions, the emperor mani- 
fested a wonderful clemency, and regard for truth. One 
day a poor woman cried out to him : " Caesar, hear me and 
give me justice." Adrian having answered that he had 
no time; '* why, then, are you our emperor ?" asked the 
woman. The prince was struck, but not oflfended by this 
bold question ; he stopped, and listened to her complaints. 
However, he took care not to be imposed upon by artful 
petitioners. A grey-headed man asked him a favor which 
was refused. Some time after, the same man applied 
again to Adrian for the same purpose, with his hair black- 
ened. The emperor pretended not to recognize him, and 
coolly dismissed him, saying: " What you ask I have al- 
ready refused to your father." 

Adrian had remarkable talents and very extensive 
knowledge. He was well versed in mathematics, history, 
natural philosophy, etc., and was deservedly considered 



A. D. 117—138. 



ADRIAN. 83 



one of the best grammarians, orators and poets of his age. 
His mind was acute and sagacious. He could at the 
same time write, dictate to a secretary, give audience to 
and converse v/ith his friends. 

His memory was astonishing. He remembered every 
thing that he had seen or read, and forgot neither the na- 
ture of the affairs which passed through his hands, nor the 
places in which he had been, nor the names of the persons 
with whom he had conversed. After reading a book, he 
could repeat it from beginning to end. Nay more, if a 
list of names confusedly mixed together was recited to 
him, he would repeat them all without a mistake. 

His genius was not less elevated than extensive, and 
always prompted him to undertake great things for the 
splendor and utility of the state. No prince seems to 
have surpassed him in the number and magnificence of 
public buildings. Such were, in Rome, the bridge and 
castle now called St. Angelo ; in Africa, the new city of 
Carthage; in Great Britain, a wall eighty miles long and 
extending from sea to sea, to preserve the Roman colonies 
from the attacks of the Scots; and in Gaul, the splendid 
amphitheatre of Nismes, which however is ascribed by 
some to the emperor Antoninus Pius, who derived his 
pedigree from that city. 

The tranquillity of Adrian's reign was disturbed only 
by a revolt of the Jews. Many of this infatuated people 
had already perished under Trajan for the same cause. 
Being checked for a time, but not subdued, they again 
rose in arms, and committed horrid cruelties in Syria and 
Palestine, under the conduct of a certain Barcochebas, 
who called himself the Messiah; for, after having rejected 
the true Messiah in the person of our Savior, the Jews 
were easily led to follow imposters. Their rebellious ob- 
stinacy obtained, as it merited, a total and irreparable 
overthrow. Adrian sent against them numerous troops 
under the command of Tinnius Rufus and Julius Severus, 



84 MODERN HISTORY. Parti. 

two able officers, who greatly distinguished themselves in 
this war. 

The forces of the rebels were so formidable, and their 
animosity so great, that the Roman generals did not think 
proper to engage them in a regular battle. They had re- 
course to a war of skirmishes and detached parties, hunt- 
ing the Jews as they would wild beasts, and pursuing 
them to death in every part of the country. This man- 
ner of warfare proved so successful to the Romans, that, 
within the space of three years (from a. d. 134 to 136), 
they took and destroyed nine hundred and eighty-five 
towns, besides fifty fortresses. In these partial conflicts 
and sieges, five hundred and eighty thousand Jews per- 
ished by the sword only; it was impossible to tell the 
number of those who fell victims to fire, sickness, or star- 
vation. All who escaped death were dispersed through- 
out the empire, and sold in public fairs like horses and 
cattle. In no countr}' were they subsequently greater 
strangers than in Judea, and particularly in Jerusalem 
which was rebuilt shortly after under the name of JEtVm 
Capitolina ; they were forbidden not only to dwell in it, 
but even to approach within three miles of its walls. 

From that time, the Jews have been scattered through 
the various parts of the globe, without any country be- 
longing to them ; without kings and princes of their own 
descent; without laws and magistrates of their own; 
mingled, but not confounded with other nations ; flatter- 
ing themselves with the deceitful expectation of the Mes- 
siah, who, from the very words of their sacred records, 
must have appeared upon earth eighteen hundred years 
ago. From that time, we see them exposed, during the 
long course of ages, to numberless disasters and calami- 
ties, but always preserved by the mighty hand of God, 
that they may ever continue visible examples of his jus- 
tice, and unexceptionable witnesses to the truth of the 
Ancient Scriptures, in which we read alike our claims and 
their condemnation. 



A, D. 117—138. 



ADRIAN. 85 



Adrian did not long survive the conclusion of this 
second Jewish war : being attacked with the dropsy, and 
tormented bj violent pains, he wished to end his life by 
the sword or by poison ; but the constant vigilance and 
care of his adopted son Antoninus prevented the deed. 
He then vented his fury against several members of the 
senate, whom he condemned, without any legal cause, to 
capital punishment; but these also Antoninus saved from 
death, by telling them to conceal themselves. Adrian, 
however, still continued to take part in the affairs of the 
state. At length, he retired from Rome to Baia in Cam- 
pania, where he observed no regimen, ate and drank what- 
ever pleased him, without any regard to his situation, 
remarking that "the multitude of physicians had killed 
the emperor." He died at the age of sixty -two, after a 
reign of twenty-one years (a. d. 138). As he had, to- 
wards the end of his life, rendered himself odious to the 
senate, it was with great difficulty that Antoninus ob- 
tained for him the usual honors which attended imperial 
obsequies. 

The truth is, Adrian neither deserved much regret, on 
account of his many private vices and some acts of tyran- 
ny, nor however did he merit the violent resentment of 
the senate, considering the habitual mildness, wisdom and 
prosperity of his government. It is highly probable that 
his memory would have obtained greater praise, had he 
been the immediate successor of Domitian. It was an 
unfavorable circumstance for his public character, that he 
came to the throne after Nerva and Trajan, and imme- 
diately before Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius, the 
most excellent emperors of pagan Rome. 

Although literature was not so flourishing under Adrian 
as it had been during the two preceding centuries, still it 
produced some celebrated writers, viz. the Latin historians 
Justin and Suetonius ; the Greek historians Arrian and 
Plutarch ; the renowned philosopher Epictetus. Adrian 
himself wrote on different subjects, and even on his 
8 



86 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part h 



death-bed composed verses expressing his conviction of 
the immortality of the soul, and the fears which he enter- 
tained respecting his future destiny. 



ANTONINUS PIUS.— A. d. 138—161. 

The family of Antoninus was originally from Gaul, but 
he himself was a native of Italy. Being chosen by the 
late emperor to be his successor, he proved himself in 
every respect worthy of this exalted station. When 
the demise of Adrian put him in possession of the 
sovereign power, the whole empire seemed to be exult- 
ing with joy ; nor did the extraordinary esteem enter- 
tained for Antoninus suffer any diminution during a 
reign of more than twenty-two years. The surname of 
Pius was given him, to perpetuate the remembrance of his 
tender affection for his adopted father, his family, and 
all his subjects. What he had hitherto been in private 
life and in inferior employments, that he continued to be 
when seated on the imperial throne; mild, generous, af- 
fable, listening with patience to every one, granting all 
that was reasonable and just, and returning good offices 
for insults and ingratitude. 

Thus when, on occasion of a conspiracy which was 
liappily detected, he could not rescue its authors from the 
rigor of the law, he at least put a stop to all inquiries 
about their accomplices. ** I would not," said he, '* begin 
my government with acts of severity ;" adding, with a 
smile: "It would be both dishonorable and unpleasant 
to me, to find, upon inquiry, that I was hated by a 
number of my fellow-citizens." The son of one of the 
chief conspirators not only was not involved in his father's 
punishment, but, on the contrary, always found in the 
emperor a protector and a friend. This clemency of An- 
toninus, like that of Augustus, produced an excellent 



A. D. 138-161. ANTONINUS PIUS. 87 

effect, and no more conspiracies were formed against a 
prince who revenged himself in so noble a manner. 

The same kindness and generosity appeared in his con- 
duct towards a Grecian philosopher, by whom he had been 
shamefully offended. When he was proconsul of Asia 
Minor, being at Smyrna, he took his lodging in the house 
of a man called Polemon, who then happened to be ab- 
sent. Upon his return home, Polemon, instead of finding 
himself much honored, was highly displeased at seeing 
his house occupied by the proconsul. He began to utter 
loud complaints, and went so far as to oblige him, in the 
middle of the night, to seek another lodging. This was 
a crying insult; yet Antoninus never thought of punish- 
ing it otherwise than by innocent raillery. When Pole- 
mon afterwards came to Rome, he received him kindly, 
and ordered an apartment to be provided for him in the 
palace, saying, with a cheerful voice : ** Let no one be 
so bold as to expel such a guest, even during the dayj^ 
A comedian having also complained that the same Pole- 
mon liad driven him from the stage, — '* at what hour,'- 
asked the emperor, ** did this happen ?" *' At mid-day," 
answered the comedian. '* Why !" exclaimed Antoni- 
nus, "he once expelled me from his house at midnight, 
and I bore it patiently." 

Many other instances might be adduced of his unaltera- 
ble meekness; it always rose superior to injuries and 
affronts, yet never degenerated into weakness. He 
employed rigor against guilty persons, whenever good 
order and necessity required; but then, not to offer, in 
such circumstances, too much violence to the benevolent 
inclination of his heart, he found out such expedients for 
moderating that rigor, as could not, by their example, be 
prejudicial to the community. Thus, for instance, a 
senator having been convicted of parricide, as it was not 
possible to save the life of such a monster, the emperor, 
not to be shocked by the sight of his punishment, caused 



88 MODERN HISTORY. Parti. 

him to be transported into a barren island, where he might 
perish by hunger and misery. 

Antoninus, both from taste and reflection, was a con- 
stant friend of peace. He often repeated this saying of 
Scipio : " I like better to preserve one citizen, than to kill 
a thousand enemies." He generally had the satisfaction 
to enjoy the tranquillity which he so much desired ; and, 
not being distracted by the cares of war, he applied him- 
self entirely to the promotion of public and private hap- 
piness. His attention was constantly occupied in gov- 
erning the state, as a good and diligent father governs his 
children and household. Far from making exactions, he 
obliged his intendants, under severe penalties, to raise the 
taxes with moderation. To the many calamitous acci- 
dents which happened during his reign he applied all the 
remedies in his power, and showed, in numberless in- 
stances, that he had nothing so much at heart, as to lighten 
the burden of his people. 

This excellent prince was also favorably inclined to- 
wards the Christians, so much exposed at that time to 
public hatred. The prejudices of the pagan world against 
their religion, and the calumnies with which they were 
blackened, continually raised storms against them, and, 
even under the best princes, led many of them to mar- 
tyrdom. No sooner was Antoninus, through the elo- 
quent apology of St. Justin and other documents, well 
informed of their innocence, than he endeavored to shel- 
ter them from the blind fury of the populace, and from the 
injustice of magistrates and governors. In a rescript 
directed to those of Asia Minor, he took the part of the 
persecuted, commended their fidelity to God, their cour- 
age in suffering death, and turned his praises of their vir- 
tues into reproaches against the vices of their persecutors. 
He concluded the rescript by declaring that the Christian 
name was by no means a just cause of condemnation, and 
that, if any were brought before the courts upon no other 



A. D. 161—180. 



MARCUS-AURELIUS. 89 



charge, they ought to be acquitted, and their accusers 
punished. 

The benefits arising from such admirable government, 
were not confined to the Romans and subjects of the em- 
pire: the reputation of Antoninus for justice, impartialitj 
and wisdom gained him a degree of authority and influ- 
ence over the neighboring nations, which he never would 
have obtained by force of arms. Foreign princes came to 
pay him homage in Rome ; the Indians, the Bactrians, the 
Hyrcanians, testified their respect for him by solemn em- 
bassies. By letters he prevented the Parthian king from 
invading Armenia, and the very barbarians near the fron- 
tiers frequently chose him umpire to settle their claims 
and differences. 

It was in such noble occupations that Antoninus spent 
the whole of his reign, the blessings of v/hich he com- 
pleted by the appointment of Marcus-Aurelius for his 
successor. After a short disease, he died a tranquil 
death, at the age of seventy-three years (a. d. 161), leaving 
a name so dear to the Romans, that, for nearly a century, 
all his successors added it to their own names : it seemed 
as if it were impossible, for either the soldiers or the citi- 
zens, to acknowledge as emperor any one who should not 
have some resemblance, were it but a nominal one, with 
Antoninus. 



MARCUS-AURELIUS.— A. r. 161—180. 

Marcus-Aurelius considered it his bounden duty to 
walk in the footsteps of his predecessor, and to govern the 
state upon the same principles. Although he was not so 
firm, prudent, and free from prejudices as Antoninus, yet 
he displayed the same zeal for the public good, the same 
application to affairs, the same moderation and generosity : 
so that his reign, notwithstanding the vices of Lucius 
8* 



91) MODERN HISTORl. 



Part 



Verus whom he had taken as his colleague, was also a pe- 
riod of glory and happiness for the Romans. 

About this time, the Parthians invaded Armenia, which 
they had long since threatened. They destroyed the le- 
gions which defended that country, and advancing into 
Syria, filled every place with terror and confusion. Mar- 
cus-Aurelius being detained in Italy, took proper mea- 
sures to repel the invaders. Avidius Cassius, one of 
his generals, not only defeated the Parthians, but also 
crossed the Euphrates, and continued his march as far as 
the royal city of Seleucia, which he plundered and re- 
duced to ashes. But these brilliant exploits were dearly 
purchased. The victorious legions, on their return, 
brought along with them a pestilence which produced 
such dreadful ravages in the empire, especially in Italy, 
that more persons were carried off by it within the space 
of a few months, than would have perished during many 
years of the most disastrous war (a. d. 166). 

This expedition against the Parthians was followed by 
another against the Marcomans^ the Quadi, and other bar- 
barians, who, driven from the north of Asia and Europe 
by more powerful tribes, or enticed by the hope of pillage, 
were striving to break through the barriers of the empire. 
Marcus-Aurelius went to put himself at the head of the 
legions, and evinced during the whole campaign a skill 
and valor which drew upon him the general admiration. 
However, after many victories, he suffered himself and 
his troops to be entangled in narrow defiles amidst the 
mountains of Bohemia, where, being surrounded on all 
sides by the enemy, they were on the point of perishing 
with excessive heat and thirst. In that extremity, the sol- 
diers of the twelfth legion, all Christians, betook them- 
selves to prayer, and presently the clouds gathered, and 
an abundant rain fell, which refreshed the Romans, where- 
as hail, thunder and lightning spread confusion among 
the barbarians, and enabled Marcus-Aurelius to gain a 
complete victory (a. d. 174). On this occasion, his army 



A. u. 161-180. COMMODUS PERTINAX DIDIUS. 91 

saluted him Imperator for the seventh time, and the 
name of Thundering was given, or confirmed to the 
twelfth legion. 

This prodigy, which pagan writers themselves relate,* 
and which is still seen engraved on the Antonine pillar at 
Rome, stopped for a time the persecution which the 
Christians were then suffering; the war however had but 
little interruption, and lasted till the end of the emperor's 
life (a. d. 180). He died at Vienna, near the Danube, 
having obtained a great reputation for political and military 
acquirements, and still more celebrated for his moral vir- 
tues, which were not however without a mixture of many 
great failings, viz. his religious bigotry, his weak conni- 
vance at the vices of his son Commodus and of other per- 
sons under his control, etc. He had lived fifty-nine years, 
and reigned nineteen. 

Besides being a great emperor and general, Marcus- 
Aurelius was also an estimable author : he has left twelve 
books of wise maxims on the rules of morality. 



COMMODUS— PERTINAX— DIDIUS-JULIANUS.— A. d. 180-193. 

Commodus succeeded his father on the throne, but fol- 
lowed a very different line of conduct. A monster, rather 
than a man, he seemed to have no relish but for atrocious 
deeds of every description. He imitated Nero in his 
worst and basest inclinations, and surpassed Domitian in 
his cruelties, except that he did not persecute the Chris- 
tians. After having gone on in this way for many years, 
his unrelenting thirst for blood at length caused his own 
death, by inducing the persons of his household to poison 
and strangle him, on the last day of the year one hundred 
and ninety-two. 

On the following day, Pertinax, a venerable man, whose 

*Dion-Cassius; Capitolinus; Claudian,etc. apud Tillemont vol. ii, p. 370. 



92 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part 1. 



uncommon merit amply compensated for the lowness of 
his extraction, was chosen and unanimously acknowledged 
emperor. Under him, the paternal and firm administra- 
tion of Antoninus began to revive. In a very short time, 
the laws were again put in force, debts were paid, the 
public revenues increased without laying new taxes, and 
powerful encouragements were given to agriculture, as 
the surest means of prosperity both for the state and for 
private families. In a word, the sound policy of Perti- 
nax, seconded by his ability and experience, promised 
lasting as well as universal happiness ; but these flattering 
hopes were soon blasted. At the end of three months, 
the praetorian soldiers incensed at his exertions for the 
restoration of military discipline, slew him in his palace 
(a. d. 193). 

After this outrage, the rebels were not ashamed to ex- 
pose the empire to sale at public auction. Purchasers 
were found, and after bidding for some time, Didius Juli- 
anus, a rich senator, carried the point, by offering twenty- 
five thousand sesterces (about six hundred and tv/enty- 
five dollars) against each praetorian. 

This shameful transaction drew universal contempt 
upon Didius. Severus, commander of the Roman troops 
in. Illyria, caused himself to be proclaimed emperor by 
them, and suddenly departing, crossed the Alps, and 
made his appearance in Italy, before the news of his 
march had arrived. As he approached Rome, Didius 
showed nothing but weakness and hesitation. This un- 
fortunate man saw himself gradually abandoned by the 
praetorians, betrayed by the Italic cohorts, and condemned 
by the senate. His death, after a precarious reign of 
sixty-six days, delivered Severus from a contemptible 
rival. 



X. D. 193-211. SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS. 93 



SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS.— A. d. 193—211. 

Two other and much more powerful competitors were 
yet in his way, Clodius Albinus and Pescennius Niger, 
men of great valor and reputation. Like Severus him- 
self, they were, after the death of Pertinax, proclaimed 
emperors in their respective governments, Albinus in 
Great Britain, and Niger in Syria. Severus was deter- 
mined to destroy them both ; still, not to be engaged at 
once in two dangerous wars, he made first an agree- 
ment with Albinus, by which he granted him a sort of 
participation in the imperial authority, and prepared to 
attack Niger. 

After a short stay in Rome, Severus departed for the 
East with numerous and well disciplined troops. Niger 
had on his side the legions of Syria and Asia Minor. From 
the character, firmness and ability of the two rivals, a 
war of long duration was anticipated : it was however 
terminated in a few months by three battles, in which all 
the troops of Niger were overcome, not by Severus in 
person, who was then occupied in besieging Byzantium, 
but by his lieutenants. The last battle was fought near 
the town of Issus in Cilicia, on the same spot where 
Alexander the Great formerly gained a splendid victory 
against the Persians. The victory of Severus was also 
complete. Niger lost twenty thousand men, and saw no 
other resource than to retire beyond the Euphrates; but 
being overtaken in his flight by some cavaliers of the vic- 
torious party, he was slain by them, and his head carried 
to Severus (a. d. 195). 

The conqueror inflicted heavy penalties on such towns 
as had embraced the party of his opponent; especially on 
Antioch, the Capital of the East, and on Byzantium, 
which surrendered to him, only after a long siege and a 
most obstinate resistance. He deprived the former of its 
privileges ; the latter he almost entirely destroyed. Such 



94 MODERN HISTORY. 



Parti. 



private individuals as had been seen most devoted to the 
same cause, were also treated with great rigor; some suf- 
fered capital punishment ; others lost their estates, or were 
condemned to pay enormous taxes. 

Motives of policy, and the fear of rendering himself too 
odious, prevented Severus from carrying severity farther. 
He published an amnesty for the common soldiers, and 
would not suffer a pompous inscription in honor of Niger 
to be erased, saying it was rather fit that it should remain, 
to let the world know what an enemy he had conquered. 
The main object which he now had in view, was to de- 
stroy Albinus, and thus obtain exclusive possession of the 
throne. Albinus, on his part, was little satisfied with 
the inferior qualification of Ccesar, and seeing himself 
supported by a powerful army and a respectable portion 
of the Roman senate, publicly assumed the title of 
Augustus. 

This bold step was precisely what Severus desired. 
His artful policy made him always endeavor to have ap- 
pearances on his side, and permit his adversary to become 
the aggressor. He was returning from the East to Rome, 
when he received information of the open defection of 
Albinus. Severus did not fail to improve this favorable 
opportunity of inveighing against his rival, and having 
him declared a public enemy. From thlat moment, the 
two competitors openly marched against each other; Se- 
verus from Maesia, and Albinus from Britain. 

It appears that the intention of Albinus was to pene- 
trate into Italy, and cause himself to be acknowledged in 
Rome. Severus, fully aware how essential it was for his 
interests to prevent the execution of any such design, de- 
tached some bodies of troops to guard the passages of the 
Alps, and followed, with all possible speed, at the head of 
the main portion of his army. He set the example of in- 
vincible fortitude in the greatest fatigues. No difficulty 
of the roads was able to stop his march; he was bare- 
headed, and disregarded snow and frosts, and both by 



A. D. 193-211. SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS. 95 

words and actions, transfused into the breasts of others 
the ardor with which he liimself was animated. He was 
thus enabled to anticipate the march of his enemy towards 
Italy, and to come up with him near the city of Lyons in 
Gaul. 

The quarrel between these two fierce rivals was now 
about to be decided. The two armies, including at least 
one hundred and fifty thousand combatants, were equal 
in number, in courage, and in the advantage of being 
headed by their respective emperors. All these circum- 
stances contributed to render the battle equally terrible 
and bloody, and victory for a long time doubtful. The 
left wing of Albinus was broken, and the fugitives were 
pursued to their camp ; but his right wing obtained at first 
a considerable advantage. The legionary soldiers of 
w^hom it was composed, had dug before them a great num- 
ber of ditches, and covered them over slightly with clay 
so artfully that no one could perceive the snare. To draw 
the enemy into it, they pretended to be afraid, and hurl- 
ing their javelins from afar, immediately retreated. The 
stratagem succeeded. The troops of Severus, anxious to 
come to a close engagement, and despising their adversa- 
ries, advanced without any precaution : but they were 
stopped at once by an obstacle as formidable as it was un- 
expected. Coming to the place which was overspread 
with clay, the earth sunk under their feet, and the whole 
first line fell into the ditches. As the lines were very 
close, the second had no time to retrace their steps, and 
fell upon the first. Those who followed, terrified at this, 
drew back hastily, and beat down their companions be- 
hind them ; so that the whole left wing of Severus was 
thrown into utter confusion. 

In this extreme danger, Severus, with the imperial 
guard, flew to the assistance of his disheartened troops. 
But at first, far from remedying the evil, he saw even his 
praetorian soldiers scattered and cut in pieces, and had a 
horse killed under him. This served only to animate him 



96 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part I. 



the more. Rallying some of the fugitives, and putting 
himself at their head, he fell, sword in hand, upon the 
enemy, determined to conquer or die. His little troop, 
animated by his example, hewed down all before them, 
without distinction of friend or foe. Numbers of fugi- 
tives were thus forced to return to the charge; and the 
conquerors, who, through eagerness, had already broken 
their ranks in order to pursue their advantage, were now 
compelled to light in their own defence. 

The battle was renewed with fresh fury; but the vic- 
tory still remained doubtful, till Laetus, the commander 
of the horse of Severus, decided the fate of the day. He 
had declined engaging in the beginning of the fight, per- 
haps through a perfidious design to let the two emperors 
destroy each other, in order to set up afterwards for him- 
self. But when he saw that fortune began to declare for 
Severus, being sensible of the danger to which his crimi- 
nal inactivity exposed him, he fell upon the flank of the 
enemy, whilst Severus attacked them vigorously in front. 
Unable any longer to keep their ground, they fled, and 
took shelter within the city, together with Albinus, who 
either died of his wounds, or killed himself in despair. 
By this complete but bloody victory, Severus was left 
(a. d. 197) without a competitor; havino;, in less than 
four years, destroyed three emperors, Didius-Julianus, 
Niger and Albinus. 

He made a terrible use of his prosperity, and showed 
himself more cruel and inexorable than ever. After Albi- 
nus had expired, his violent enemy spurred his horse on 
the dead body, which he caused to remain exposed until 
it was devoured by dogs, and sent the head to the senate, 
with alarming threats against those who had followed the 
party of that unfortunate general. His wife, children 
and friends, all those who could be discovered to have 
been his leading partisans, were put to death. Many 
towns in Gaul and Spain had to mourn the loss of their 



A. D. 193-211. SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS. 97 

worthiest citizens, especially of such as were rich, in 
whom their wealth was too frequently their only crime. 

By means like these, Severus amassed immense trea- 
sures, of which he made use chiefly to gain the affec- 
tion of the soldiery by favors and largesses. His return 
to Rome with his victorious troops, spread terror through 
the city, and in a few days forty senators fell victims to 
his revenge. 

On this occasion, Severus received a striking lesson 
from his younger son Geta, who was then only eight years 
old. The boy, having heard his father declare how he 
would revenge himself, seemed greatly concerned. In 
order to quiet his apprehensions, Severus said that the per- 
sons who had been marked for death, were enemies, of 
whom he was going to deliver him, Geta then asked how 
many there might be of those unfortunate people. Being 
told the number, he grew still more pensive, and again 
asked whether these unhappy men had any relations or 
parents alive ; and, as he was answered that most of them 
had several; "Alas!" replied he, ''there will be then 
more persons sorry for our victory, than will partake of 
our joy." Severus was struck by a remark at once so 
judicious and humane; but the prefects of his guards 
urged him to execute the proposed slaughter, and his 
elder son, Carracalla, proposed that even the children of 
their enemies should be put to death with their fathers. 
Upon which, Geta, with a look of indignation, said to him : 
" Disposed as you appear to be to spare the life of none, 
you would also be capable of killing your own brother." 
Words evincing extraordinary sagacity, and which were 
afterwards too well verified. 

One of the two prefects of the guards just mentioned, 
was Plautian, a proud and an ambitious man, whose fate 
was exactly similar to that of Sejanus under Tiberius. 
Like him, he obtained great influence, which he most 
shockingly abused, until, by his insolence, he brought 
about his ruin, and that of his friends and family. 
9 



98 MODERN HISTORY. 



Pan: 



In the meanwhile, the Christians every where acknow- 
ledged and faithfully obeyed Severiis. For this reason, 
and also from a motive of personal gratitude towards one 
of them who had cured him of a dangerous sickness, the 
emperor for some time treated them kindly. A mistaken 
policy induced him afterwards to change his conduct in 
their regard. The followers of Christ had multiplied ex- 
ceedingly in consequence of the peace which they had 
enjoyed since the reign of Marcus-Aurelius. The mira- 
cles which Almighty God daily wrought by their hands, 
and the spectacles of their extraordinary virtue, drew over 
to them great numbers of proselytes.* *' We fill," said 
Tertullian to them at that very time, " your cities, your 
towns, your senate and your armies ; we leave you only 
your temples and theatres. "t So rapid an increase threat- 
ened the downfall of idolatry. This, together with the 
clamor of the heathens, probably induced Severus to re- 
new the persecution against the Christians. At first, 
permitting the magistrates to execute the former laws on 
this subject, he afterwards expressly authorized their 
conduct, by a new edict issued in the tenth year of his 
reign (a. d. 202). Then the persecution became general, 
and countless numbers received the crown of Martyr- 
dom. The most illustrious of those martyrs were St. 
Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, and St. Leonides, the father of 
Origen who became so celebrated in the church for his 
genius and learning. Being at that time but seventeen 



* These undoubtedly, with the assistance of inward grace, were the 
only causes of the stupendous diffusion of Christianity ; and such per- 
sons as have, like Gibbon, attempted to prove the contrary, have proved 
nothing but the perverseneas of their own views and scepticism. 
Surely, nothing short of a constant and special interposition of God 
could induce men, buried as they were in vice and idolatry, to embrace 
a religion so contrary to the passions and vices, so destitute of all human 
support, so violently attacked by all the powers of earth, by calumnies, 
vexations, tortures and death. Since Christianity was not only unaided, 
but even opposed by all natural and human causes, most certainly its 
propagation must be attributed to a cause supernatural and divine. 

t Tertull. Apolog. c. 37. 



A. D. 193-211. SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS. 99 

years old, Origen, in a moving letter, exhorted his father 
to die courageously for the faith of Christ, and he himself, 
through the desire of martyrdom, would have gone to 
present himself before the persecutors, had not his mother 
compelled him to remain at home by concealing his 
clothes. 

The fire of persecution raged for many years through- 
out the empire, but, far from destroying the Church, it 
served only to purify her, and make her shine with greater 
lustre. The Christians presented themselves with cour- 
age before the tribunals, and viewed with calmness the 
racks and other instruments prepared for their torture, 
ready to meet death in its most cruel shapes. The 
more they were immolated, the more their number daily 
increased, the sight of such wonderful examples of forti- 
tude, and of the miracles which the Almighty was pleased 
frequently to perform on these occasions, leading many 
of the spectators, sometimes the very executioners and 
judges, to embrace the Christian religion. 

Learning also and eloquence concurred with virtues 
and miracles in the vindication of Christianity. In order 
to refute polytheism, the holy priest Clement of Alexan- 
dria made deep researches in every part of heathen my- 
thology, which he used as a most powerful weapon against 
its absurd doctrines. Minutius Felix, a celebrated law- 
yer at Rome, wrote an excellent dialogue setting forth, 
with great force of reasoning and purity of style, the ab- 
surdities of idolatry and the excellency of the Christian 
doctrine. But the most powerful work published at that 
time was the Apologetic of Tertullian, a priest of Car- 
thage. In it, he gave a deadly blow to paganism, by ex- 
posing its manifold errors; and victoriously refuted every 
calumny broached against the Christians, by exhibiting 
the purity of their lives, their piety towards God, their 
mutual charity, their love of their enemies, their horror 
for every vice, their patience and constancy in suffering 
all kinds of torments, even death itself, for the sake of 



100 MODERN HISTORY. 



Parti. 



virtue. This was plainly showing the injustice of the 
persecution which they suffered. 

Notwithstanding these and other acts of tyranny exer- 
cised by Severus, he is not to be reckoned among such 
abominable princes as we have frequently had occasion 
to mention. With religious fanaticism and an inflexible 
spirit of revenge he united many great and laudable quali- 
ties, viz., frugality, vigilance and firmness in govern- 
ment, prudence in the management of the public revenues, 
assiduity and equity in the administration of justice, in 
fine, a wonderful foresight and solicitude in providing 
even for the future wants of the people. When he died, 
there was in the public granaries a quantity of corn and 
wheat sufficient to support the inhabitants of the Capital 
for seven years ; and all Italy was supplied with oil for 
five yeai^. 

The predominant characteristic of that emperor was 
his activity and warlike spirit, and the most striking fea- 
ture in his life is to be found in that rapidity of conquests 
which rendered him almost equal to Julius Caesar. Be- 
sides his exploits in civil wars, he made two successful 
campaigns against the Parthians and other nations of the 
East, one after the defeat of Niger, and the other after 
the ruin of Albinus. In the latter especially, he gained 
s'uch victories as to acquire the surname of Parthicu& 
Maximus. He failed only in the siege of Atra, a well 
fortified town near the Tigris, which had also repelled 
Trajan; but he conquered many other towns in Assyria 
and Mesopotamia; and in particular, secured to the Ro- 
mans the possession of the important city of Nisibis, 
which became the strongest bulwark of the empire on that 
frontier. 

The last expedition of Severus was made in the north 
of Great Britain against the Caledonians, whom he drove 
back to their mountains. In order to confine them within 
due limits, and preserve the Roman colonies from subse- 
quent invasion, he raised a wall similar to, but more solid 



A. D. 153-211. SEPTLMIUS SEVERUS. 101 

than the intrenchment of Adrian, and, like it, extending 
from one sea to the other. Some of its ruins are yet to 
be seen between the Friths of Forth and Clyde, and excite 
the astonishment of the traveller. 

As he was going one day to conclude a treaty with the 
barbarians, in presence of both armies, a sudden cry of 
horror was heard : Severus turned, and beheld his eldest 
son, Caracalla, in the act of advancing, sword in hand, to 
stab him from behind. The outcry stopped the arm of the 
unnatural son, and his father, without uttering a word, 
resumed the negotiation of the treaty. 

Having returned to his tent, he sent for Caracalla, and, 
in the presence of Papinianus and Cursor, his chief at- 
tendants, reproached him with his heinous crime. Then 
presenting him with a drawn sword, he added : ** If the 
desire of reigning impels you to imbrue your hands in the 
blood of your father, satisfy your desire here, rather than 
in the sight of all, both friends and enemies." No other 
punishment did he inflict upon him. But neither the just 
reproaches nor the paternal indulgence of Severus pro- 
duced any feeling of remorse in Caracalla. On the con- 
trary, he persisted in his detestable intention, and, besides 
requesting some of the physicians of the court to accele- 
rate his father's death, diligently circulated seditious 
principles among the soldiers ; insinuating, for instance, 
that it was a disgraceful thing to obey an old man who 
was infirm, attacked with the gout, and unfit to command 
them any longer. Reports like these produced a revolt in 
that portion of the army the direction of which his too in- 
dulgent father had confided to him. Severus, assembling 
the legions, condemned to death the accomplices of his 
son, but still spared the young prince, and even, it ap- 
pears, granted pardon to all, at their earnest entreaties. 
Then addressing himself to them with a loud voice and 
a majestic air; "You see now," said he, "that it is the 
head which governs and not the feet." 

Shortly after, he fell dangerously sick in the city of 
9* 



102 MODERN HISTORY. Panf, 

York, and the most painful reflections upon the atrocious 
conduct of Caracalla preying upon his mind, he felt that 
his days were drawing to a close. He then called his two 
sons to his bed-side, and declared his intention of leaving 
the empire to be possessed by them both, exhorting them 
at the same time to mutual forbearance and concord 
(an advice which became as fruitless as it was necessary) ; 
he added that, having found the state in disturbance and 
confusion, he left it quiet and respected. 

Some moments before expiring, the emperor cried aloud : 
** I have been all things, and all things are nothing; and 
I no where found solid content and happiness." Having 
ordered the urn, which was to contain his ashes, to be 
brought to him, he addressed it in these terms: *' Thou 
wilt contain him for whom the whole earth was too little." 
In order to terminate more speedily his acute and increas- 
ing pains, he asked, it is said, for poison ; but no one 
being willing to comply with his desire, he took so great 
a quantity of food that he was suffocated. This happened 
in his sixty-sixth year, and about the eighteenth of his 
reign (a. d. 211). He left behind him the reputation, not 
of a good, but, in many respects, a great monarch, and, 
next to Trajan, the most warlike of the Roman emperors. 
Such was the natural activity of his mind, that, even at 
the last moment of his life, he was asking whether there 
was any thing to be done. 

Making due allowance for the peculiarities necessarily 
occasioned by the difference of time, place and other cir- 
cumstances, there is not perhaps, in all history, a single 
prince who so strikingly resembles the great conqueror of 
our own age. Napoleon Buonaparte. Not that Napoleon 
was as revengeful and inexorable as Severus ; but we 
see in both the same active and warlike genius; the same 
boldness in undertaking, and quickness in executing ; 
the same talents and firmness in government ; the same 
ardor for the advancement of their families ; and, in fine, 
the same indifference for the lives of other men, when 



A. D. 211—222. 



CARACALLA MACRINUS, ETC. 103 



their own interest and ambitious views were to be 
promoted. 

CARACALLA— MACRINUS— HELIOGAB ALUS.— A. d. 211-222. 

The death of Severus would have caused little regret, 
had he not been succeeded bj such a monster as his son 
Caracalla, ^vhose name was derived from a Gallic vest- 
ment which he was fond of wearing. He commenced his 
reign by the murder of his brother Geta, and continued, 
for six years, through such a course of debaucheries, 
cruelties and rapines, which Europe, Asia, and Egypt 
successively witnessed, as fully to deserve the name of 
second Caligula, which is given him by some historians. 
He was murdered, at the age of twenty-nine years, by 
Martialis, a centurion, whom he had oftended by an act of 
cruel injustice; but the chief, though secret leader of the 
plot, was Macrinus, the commander of the imperial guards, 
whom the cruel emperor had frequently threatened with 
death. This revolution happened in the year two hun- 
dred and seventeen, and was quickly followed by another. 

Macrinus experienced little difficulty in obtaining the 
place of Caracalla ; but he did not, by his government, 
conciliate the affection and esteem of the people ; on the 
contrary, he drew upon himself the contempt of the troops, 
by concluding a disgraceful peace with the Parthian king, 
and earned their hatred, by refusing them the favors 
which they required. A new revolt broke out in favor of 
young Bassianus, otherwise called Heliogabalus (from his 
being a priest of the sun), who now claimed the sceptre as 
being a relation, by his mother, to the Severian family. 
Both parties had recourse to arms, and an engagement 
took place, which proved fatal to Macrinus: he was de- 
feated, overtaken in his flight by the conquerors, and de- 
prived not only of the empire, but also of his life, after a 
reign of only fourteen months (a. d. 218). 



104 MODERN HISTORY 



Part t. 



All the worst tyrants hitherto mentioned seemed to re- 
vive in the person of Heliogabalus. Never was there a 
more effeminate and despicable, a more dissolute and 
wicked prince. Every day added to his extravagances, 
and increased the public indignation. Sensible of the 
danger to which he was exposed, and unwilling to receive 
death from any other hands than his own, he prepared 
silken strings and golden swords, for the purpose of either 
strangling himself or cutting his throat, if necessary. 
Moreover, a tower was built for him, surrounded by a 
pavement of precious stones, that, should he be obliged 
to precipitate himself from the top, he might at least have 
his head and limbs bruised in a splendid manner. 

All these silly precautions proved useless. Heliogaba- 
lus was slain in a privy by the soldiers, and the multitude 
seizing upon his body, dragged it through the streets of 
Rome, and threw it into the Tiber (a. d. 222). He had 
reigned nearly four years, and was succeeded by his 
cousin Alexander Severus, whose reign presents a spec- 
tacle as pleasing as that of his predecessor was execrable. 



ALEXANDER SEVERUS.— a. d. 222—235. 

A NATURAL inclination to virtue, fostered by an excel- 
lent education, rendered Alexander Severus one of the 
most amiable and accomplished princes mentioned in the 
annals of the world. Justice, goodness and generosity 
were^his favorite virtues. He often repeated this maxim, 
which he had learned from the Christians : do to all men, as 
you would have all men do to you ; he caused it to be en- 
graved on the walls of his palace, and made it the rule of 
his conduct. He also frequenth^ paid religious homage 
to our Savior, whose image he kept in a sort of chapel, 
together with those of Abraham, Orpheus, and other signal 
benefactors of humanity. This is indeed a singular col- 
lection of names ; but the fact serves at least to show the 



A. D. 222-235. ALEXANDER SEVERUS. 105 

happy inclination of that prince to honor virtue, where- 
ever he found it sincere and active. 

Although Alexander was scarcely fourteen years old, 
when the sovereign power devolved upon him, his admin- 
istration was truly admirable almost from the beginning. 
For this he was partly indebted to the prudence of his 
mother Mammaea, and to a numerous counsel composed, 
by her care, of the most virtuous senators, the best offi- 
cers in the army, and the ablest jurisconsults in the state. 
Aided by such counsellors, and urged on by his own ex- 
cellent dispositions, Alexander commenced a reign worthy 
of being proposed as a model to all future sovereigns. 

The whole empire needed a thorough reformation ; but 
innumerable were the difficulties to be encountered in the 
attempt. Alexander was not frightened by their number 
and magnitude, but immediately set about this great work 
with vigor. Besides degrading and dismissing all the 
iniquitous judges and bad officers appointed by Helio- 
gabalus, he made an exact review of all the orders of the 
state, of the senate, the knights, the tribes and the 
armies, expelling from them all bad and corrupt mem- 
bers. No guilty person was spared. Even the crimes of 
those connected with the emperor by the ties of consan- 
guinity or friendship, met with condign punishment. On 
such occasions, he used to say that the commonwealth was 
dearer to him than his family. 

No criminal did he punish with greater severity than 
governors who oppressed the people, and judges who suf- 
fered themselves to be bribed. So great was his abhor- 
rence of such persons, that, when he beheld any of them, 
he could not restrain his indignation, but was obliged, as 
Lampridius relates, to throw up bile, and his fingers, by 
a sort of natural impulse, were directed towards the face 
of the criminal, as if to tear out his eyes.* Nor did he 

* Lamprid. in vit. Alexandr. Sever. 



106 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part I . 



stop at mere menaces : great seventy was used, in order 
to repress the abuse. 

He treated with no less rigor those who made an im- 
proper use of the favor which they enjoyed near him, and 
betrayed his confidence. A certain man, called Vetronius 
Turinus, who frequently approached the emperor, received 
from different persons large sums of money, under the 
false pretence that the benefits of the court were granted 
through his means; this conduct he called, selling smoke. 
Having been detected in this shameful proceeding, Alex- 
ander ordered that he should be tied to a post, about which 
a fire was made of green wood, so that the smoke might 
suffocate him ; and a herald cried out during the execu- 
tion : " The seller of smoke is punished with smoke." 

An example like this was certainly well calculated to 
check the evil ; but, the more efficaciously to root it out, 
Alexander directed all his attention to a good choice of 
governors and magistrates. None could obtain public 
employments, who had not first merited his esteem and 
that of the people:* it was even a maxim with him, that 
they who shunned dignities, were the most worthy of them. 
He highly approved the custom used in the Christian 
Church, of publicly proclaiming the names of those who 
were to be promoted to the priesthood, in order that any 
objection against them might be made known, and se- 
riously examined. Alexander adopted this plan, declar- 
ing beforehand the names of those whom he intended to 
appoint governors of the provinces. But at the same 
time, not to excite against them the fury of envy and ma- 

* Among the virtuous men in whom Alexander chiefly reposed his 
confidence, must be reckoned the celebrated historian Dio-Cassius, a 
fiative of Nice in Bithynia, and well known at Rome for his manifold 
merits, which had raised him, under the preceding emperors, to various 
offices of state, even to the consulship. By Alexander Severus he was 
entrusted with the government of many important provinces, and ap- 
pointed consul a second time. After having travelled, and collected 
documents during ten years, he wrote a complete Roman History in 
eighty books, many of which are entirely lost, whilst many others are 
extant only in extracts and abbreviations. 



A. D. ^2-235. ALEXANDER SEVERUS. 107 

lice, he insisted that the accusations should be of a serious 
nature and well proved; otherwise, the accusers were 
punished as vile calumniators. 

With equity and justice the young emperor united ad- 
mirable clemency. Being well informed that a senator 
of illustrious birth, named Ovinius Camillus, had set on 
foot a plot to raise himself to the sovereign power, Alex- 
ander sent for him, thanked him for his willingness to 
share the troubles annexed to the crown, and began to 
treat him as his colleague. At that time, a military expe- 
dition was to be made against some barbarians who had 
revolted. Alexander offered the command to Camillus, 
and, on his refusal, with prudent generosity invited him 
to partake at least in the glory of the campaign. They 
started together on foot. Camillus, being soon tired, was 
advised by the emperor to take a horse for the rest of the 
journey, and afterwards to make use of a carriage. These 
proceedings, so flattering in appearance, mortified him so 
muclia that he abdicated his honors, and hastily returned 
to his country seat, where Alexander permitted him to 
live unmolested. 

In the conduct of this prince with regard to the troops, 
prudence and firmness, kindness and severity were admi- 
rably blended. He kept them under strict discipline, 
marched at their head, used the same food and clothing 
as themselves. However, whilst he required of them 
an exact performance of their duties, he was affable to all, 
and paid particular attention that they should not want 
any thing, especially in time of sickness. 

By these means, Alexander obtained the unbounded 
aflfection of the soldiers, who considered him as their 
father and brother, and a surprising influence and respect 
among them, notwithstanding his youth. Once particu- 
larly, being surrounded with discontented legionary sol- 
diers who expressed their displeasure on account of a 
punishment inflicted on some of their number, he endeav- 
ored first to appease their murmurs by exhortations and 



108 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part I. 



menaces. As they persisted in their clamors, Alexander 
said to them, with a tone of indignation: "Citizens, 
retire, and leave your arms." The astounded legion laid 
down their arms, took off the military insignia, and retired 
in silence. But, after having thus vindicated his authority, 
the emperor, moved by their supplications, received them 
again into favor, and ever after enjoyed their inviolable 
fidelity and attachment. 

Another important object of Alexander's care was the 
public treasury. He managed the revenues of the state 
with so much wisdom, that he was enabled to reduce the 
taxes imposed by Heliogabalus, in the proportion of thirty 
to one; and still, far from abolishing the usual favors 
granted to the soldiers and the people, he, on the con- 
trary, seemed continually occupied in bestowing benefits. 
Liberality regulated by prudence formed one of the most 
remarkable features in his character. He took particular 
pleasure in giving to the poor, especially to those who, 
having a certain rank to support, were destitute of the 
means of so doing, and had not fallen into distress through 
their own fault. In a word, history bears him the glo- 
rious testimony, that he never suffered a day to pass with- 
out performing some act of humanity. 

It should not then appear astonishing that the venera- 
tion and love of the Romans for Alexander was carried 
to a sort of enthusiasm. Whenever he had to depart from 
Rome on some distant expedition, he was accompanied to 
a distance by the whole senate and all the people, who 
manifested, by their tears, their affection for so good a 
prince, and their grief for his departure, he himself min- 
gling his tears with theirs. When he returned, he could 
scarcely advance through the streets, on account of the 
immense multitude of people that surrounded him crying 
aloud, with transports of joy : ** Rome is happy, since she 
sees Alexander alive." 

The chief occasion that made him leave the Capital for 
a time, was an important event which had just happened 



A. D. -m-^m. 



ALEXANDER SEVERUS. 109 



in the East. By a sudden revolution, the Parthian em- 
pire, which civil feuds had previously weakened, fell, 
after a duration of four hundred and fifty years, and the 
ancient Persian monarchy was re-established by a certain 
Artaxerxes, son of Sassan, and first king of the dynasty 
of the Sassanides (a. d. 226). This great change was of 
no advantage to the Romans, as the Persians gave them, 
for many centuries, as much trouble at least, as the Par- 
thians had done before. In the very beginning of their 
new monarchy, they attacked Mesopotamia and Syria 
with an army of one hundred and twenty thousand horse, 
and seven hundred elephants carrying wooden towers, 
each containing many archers. However, formidable as 
they were, the Persians could not resist the intrepidity 
of the Roman legions commanded by their emperor in 
person; and, after suffering considerable loss, they were 
compelled to retire. This is the most probable account 
given of that expedition, which was no sooner over, than 
Alexander, upon information of the disturbances excited 
by the Germans in the West, speedily returned to Rome, 
where he received the honors of a splendid triumph. 

At his departure from the East, he left a sufficient num- 
ber of troops to prevent or repel any subsequent invasions 
of the enemy. These and other troops employed by Alex- 
ander in the Persian war, were not only brave in the field, 
but likewise so well trained by good discipline, that in 
their marches and in their whole deportment they rather 
resembled so many bodies of grave senators : hence every 
one highly extolled the excellent emperor for the great 
benefits which he conferred on the army. 

Far more difficult, and terribly fatal in the result, was 
the attempt to establish the same good order among the 
legions of Gaul and Germany. Alexander had now re- 
paired to those countries, for the purpose of driving back 
the Germans beyond the Rhine. Accustomed as some of 
these legions were to disorder and licentiousness, they 
could not bear the idea of being subjected to the yoke of 

10 



110 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part I. 



strict discipline. Wherefore, by the secret direction of 
Maximin, one of their generals, they attacked the young 
emperor in his tent; perceiving that all resistance would 
be useless, he covered his face with his cloak, and yielded 
himself an easy victim (a. d. 235). 

Alexander lived nearly twenty-seven years, and reigned 
thirteen : a prince, equal, if not superior, to the most re- 
nowned among the Roman emperors. Trajan, Marcus- 
Aurelius, and some few others, performed perhaps greater 
exploits, or were more successful in some respects; but 
we should remember that they had reached a more mature 
age, when they mounted the throne, than Alexander when 
he was precipitated from it. No greater misfortune could 
have befallen the empire, than his premature death. It 
was followed, during fifty years, by so many treasons, 
civil wars and other calamities, that the third century has 
derived from them the name of iron-age. Of the many 
emperors who reigned in that period until Diocletian., 
scarcely one escaped a violent death. We will com- 
prise most of them under the following head of 



MILITARY USURPERS.— A. d. 235—268. 

As it was not known, at the time of Alexander's death, 
that Maximin had been its chief promoter, the whole 
army, through esteem for his natural bravery, saluted him 
emperor. He was of Gothic extraction, a native of 
Thrace, and had been a shepherd before enlisting among 
the Roman troops. He was of an enormous stature, 
being, we are told, about nine feet high, and stout in pro- 
portion. His strength was not less astonishing than his 
size. He could, without assistance, move a waggon 
heavily laden ; and, with a blow of his fist, break the teeth 
or leg of a horse. Hence he was compared with Milo 
the Crotonian, Hercules, and Antaeus, those prodigies of 
strength in pagan antiquity; like them also he was an ex- 



A. D. 235-268. MILITARY USURPERS. Ill 

traordinarj eater and drinker. He required forty pounds 
of meat and seven gallons of wine for his daily allowance. 

This great bulk of body was accompanied in Maximin 
with that brutality which is its almost necessary ap- 
pendage in an uncultivated mind. He was, it is true, 
an excellent warrior, and gained many bloody victo- 
ries over the Germans; but we may say without exagge- 
ration that he shed still more blood throughout the empire, 
hj persecuting the Christians, whom his predecessor had, 
on the contrary, favored, and by putting to death numbers 
of persons, who either knew the meanness of his extrac- 
tion, or by their eminent merit excited his jealousy and 
fears. The people also suifered very much from his ra- 
pine and extortions. 

Having, by so many acts of tyranny, provoked univer- 
sal hatred, Maximin was murdered by his own troops, 
near Aquileia, after a reign of three years (a. d. 238), 
Four competitors, whom the senate had opposed to him, 
viz., the two Gordians in Africa, and Maximus with Bal- 
binus in Rome, also perished about the same time, by the 
fury of the soldiery. 

After them, Gordian the younger, or the third, reigned 
six years. His youth and virtuous inclinations, his pros- 
perous government, and great victories over the Persians, 
made him a living copy of Alexander Severus. He re- 
sembled him likewise in his death, being murdered by the 
orders of Philip, the prefect of his guards (a. d. 244). 

Philip reigned five years, after which he was slain in 
battle whilst endeavoring to repress the revolt of Decius, 
one of his generals (a. d. 249). He governed with pru- 
dence and courage the empire which he had acquired by 
crime, and was favorable to the Christians. 

Decius was on the contrary one of the most cruel ene- 
mies of Christianity ; and the seventh general persecu- 
tion, of which he was the author, made an incredible 
number of martyrs. Nothing else of great importance 
is known concerning this emperor, except that, having 



112 MODERN HISTORY. Parti. 

undertaken a war against the Goths, which at first suc- 
ceeded well, he afterwards rashly entangled himself in 
marshy places, was entirely defeated, and perished with 
his son and his whole army (a. d. 251). 

Gallus, a Uoman general, whose treacherous advice was 
probably the cause of this disaster, remained in possession 
of the sovereign power, but kept it only one year and a 
half. He carried on the persecution commenced by De- 
cius, and, like him, was killed with his son Volusian. 
iEmilian, his successor, was put to death by his own 
troops, after a still shorter reign of four months (a. d. 253). 

The imperial dignity was now, by the unanimous con- 
sent of all orders of the state, conferred on Valerian, a 
venerable senator, who had greatly distinguished himself in 
inferior employments. He continued to evince great pru- 
dence in common and easy affairs; but for matters of im- 
portance his talents and mind proved inadequate. In 
the seventh year of his reign he suffered a signal defeat 
from the Persians, and owing to his own imprudence, 
was taken prisoner (a. d. 260). King Sapor treated him 
with the utmost indignity. When he wished to get on 
horseback or to enter his chariot, he forced the unhappy 
emperor to bend his body and present his neck as a stir- 
rup. Whilst riding, he compelled him to run by his side, 
though loaded with his chains. In fine, after several 
years of the most ignominious and cruel captivity, Vale- 
rian was not only put to death, but also flayed, and his 
skin, painted red, was suspended in a Persian temple, to 
serve as a lasting monument of the disgrace of the 
Romans. 

The heathens wondered at the dreadful fate of Valerian ; 
but the Christians easily perceived in it the hand of God 
falling heavily upon a prince who, contrary to his own judg- 
ment and inclination, had cruelly persecuted them. For, 
although he knew their fidelity, and was naturally good 
and moderate, superstition and evil advice induced him to 
command the eighth general persecution. It lasted three 



A. D. 235—268. 



MILITARY USURPERS. 113 



years and a half, and was extremely violent, especially in 
Africa, where, among others, St. Cyprian, Archbishop of 
Carthage, was beheaded; and in Rome, where the illus- 
trious Deacon St. liawrence was burnt by a slow fire. 
Ecclesiastical historians relate that, when one side of his 
body was burnt, he himself requested that the other side 
also should be presented to the fire; and adding, after a 
few moments, that he was now sufiiciently roasted, calmly 
expired in the midst of his horrid torments. 

Not Valerian only, but the whole empire, so obstinately 
bent on shedding the blood of the Christians, had to un- 
dergo the punishments inflicted by divine justice. Both 
the Capital and the provinces were visited by calamities 
of every description. Within the space of a few years, not 
fewer than twenty pretenders* were seen exerting them- 
selves to obtain possession of the sovereign power. The 
frontiers were attacked and the Roman territories invaded 
by the Persians, Sarmatians, Goths, Germans, and other 
barbarians. In fine, earthquakes, famine and pestilence 
made frightful ravages from one extremity of the empire 
to the other, and particularly in Rome, where the plague 
sometimes carried off five thousand persons in one day. 
These various calamities happened under the reign of Ga- 
lienus, an indolent and unworthy prince, who was killed 
by some of his ofiicers (a. d. 268). 

So many disasters seemed to indicate the approaching 
downfall of the empire; but it was saved from destruc- 
tion, nay more, restored to its ancient splendor, by a long 
series of great emperors, the first of whom, according to 
the order of time, was 

* The common opinion says Uiiriy, but is contradicted by facts and by 
lair calculation : not more than eighteen or twenty of these pretenders 
can be found in the exact enumeration of them given by the most accu- 
rate historians, viz., Tillemont, vol. in., note l,on Gallienus ; Crevier, 
hist, des Emp, Rom. vol. x, p.p. 355 and 441. It must also be observed 
that the name of tyrant, by which they are usually designated, is not 
equally applicable to all, several of them having been highly commenda- 
ble for their endowments and moral virtues. — N. B. The word tyrants, 
as here used, was applied to men who, having assumed the title and 
power of emperors, died without being acknowledged as such in Rome 
and by the senate. 

10* 



114 MODERN HISTORY. 



CLAUDIUS II.— A. D. 268—270. 



Tart I. 



A HAPPY union of moral, civil and military acquire- 
ments raised Claudius II. to an equality of merit with 
Trajan. He incurred, it is true, the guilt of sharing in 
the murder of his predecessor; but afterwards, nothing 
appeared in him but love of justice, true patriotism and 
heroic magnanimity. These princely virtues he displayed, 
notwithstanding the shortness of his reign, on several 
occasions, and, when circumstances required, he did not 
hesitate to practise them against his own interest. Thus, 
when a woman came to complain of the wrong she had 
formerly suffered from a certain officer named Claudius, 
the emperor, understanding that the allusion was to him- 
self, did not take oifence at the boldness of the complaint, 
but presently repaired the wrong, and, by so doing, 
evinced his readiness to sacrifice every selfish feeling to 
the rule of equity. 

This excellent prince reigned just long enough to de- 
stroy a hostile fleet of two thousand sail, and an army of 
three hundred and twenty thousand Goths who had in- 
vaded Macedonia. He attacked them first near Nai'ssus, 
in a battle which lasted long and was obstinately disputed. 
The Romans gave way in several places ; but at length, a 
detachment of their army going round by roads which 
seemed impassable, fell upon the rear and flanks of their 
enemies. This unexpected attack decided the victory, 
and the Goths were forced to retreat, after having lost 
fifty thousand men. They rallied however their shattered 
forces, and hazarded a new battle, which proved as dis- 
astrous as the former. They who escaped, were closely 
pursued by Claudius ; yet such was the fierceness and 
valor of the barbarians, that, even in the deplorable con- 
dition to which they were now reduced, they once more 
rallied, and rendered doubtful the event of the battle. 
Falling with desperate courage upon the Roman infantry, 



D. 270- 



AURELIAN. 115 



thej threw it into confusion, cut part of it in pieces, and 
would probabl}^ have completed its destruction, if the 
horse, wheeling round, had not compelled the wearied 
troops to retire. The sad remnant took refuge in the 
passes of mount Hsemus, and fell victims to famine and 
disease. 

The Roman fleet, after scouring the seas, returned, 
loaded with booty, to Macedonia, in order to rejoin the 
army. But that army was already dispersed, and the ar- 
rival of sea-troops at that fatal shore, served only to in- 
crease the disasters of their nation. The ships, being 
deprived of their defenders, had sunk and were destroyed ; 
the men, unable to penetrate into a country in which every 
thing opposed them, were forced to disband and take dif- 
ferent directions. They were slain, or taken prisoners, 
or carried off by a contagious distemper; so that of this 
incredible multitude of barbarians, only a few stragglers 
escaped. 

After this exploit, one of the greatest ever performed 
by any Roman general or emperor, Claudius was attacked 
by the plague, which had broken out among his troops, 
and died at Syrmium in Pannonia (a. d. 270). His death 
caused inexpressible grief among the people, as well as in 
the army. No sooner had he expired than the legions 
chose as his successor, Aurelian, one of his bravest 
generals. 

AURELIAN— A. D. 270—275. 

The military feats of Aurelian had been great before, 
they were still more conspicuous after his accession to the 
throne. He began by checking the inroads of numerous 
hordes of Germans, Vandals and other barbarians, who 
had advanced so far as to invade Italy itself. Then, after 
a short stay in Rome, he departed for the East, where the 
state of affairs demanded all his attention. 

A powerful monarchy had been recently founded there 



116 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part 1. 



by the illustrious queen Zenobia, a woman distinguished 
for her superior mind, her activity, and all the virtues 
that adorn exalted station. Naturally possessed of great 
talents, she improved them by study and application, be- 
came perfectly acquainted with history, on which she 
herself wrote a book, and besides the Syriac, her native 
tongue, knew also the Egyptian, Greek and Latin lan- 
guaffes, which she had learned at the school of the cele- 
brated rhetorician Longinus. After the death of her hus- 
band Odenat, prince of Palmyra, who had been a constant 
friend and useful ally to the Romans, Zenobia took ad- 
vantage of the many calamities of the empire to invade its 
fairest provinces in Asia and Africa, and having formed 
to herself an extensive monarchy, maintained her inde- 
pendence for five or six years with great honor and 
success. 

It was against this princess that Aurelian now directed 
all his efforts, and one year was sufficient to put an end to 
her prosperity, notwithstanding the many obstacles which 
he had to surmount. On his way from Rome to the East, 
he was obliged to fight against numerous bodies of barba- 
rians who pillaged the country ; his progress was also 
arrested in Asia Minor by some towns which sided with 
Zenobia. Tyana, in particular, seemed disposed to offer 
a vigorous resistance. Aurelian, exasperated at this hin- 
drance, swore in his anger that he would not leave a dog 
alive in that rebellious town ; a resolution highly pleasing 
to the soldiers who rejoiced beforehand in the hope of ob- 
taining great booty. After the city was taken, the troops 
entreated Aurelian to keep his oath. *' I have sworn," 
replied he, *' not to leave a dog alive in Tyana : kill, then, 
if you will, all the dogs, but I forbid you to do any harm 
to the inhabitants." This generous answer, though it 
disappointed cupidity, obtained universal applause. 

In the meanwhile Zenobia, with numerous troops, had 
come forward to oppose the further progress of Aurelian. 
After two battles near Antioch, the result of which M^as 



D. 270—275. 



AURELIAN. 117 



unfavorable to her cause, the two armies, amountino- each 
to about seventy thousand men, engaged in a general bat- 
tle under the walls of Emesa. At the first onset, the 
Palmyrian cavalry gained a considerable advantage over 
that of the Romans. Being more numerous, and the Ro- 
mans having made a movement, in order to extend their 
front and prevent themselves from being surrounded, the 
enemy's horse, which attacked them at that very instant, 
easily broke their disordered ranks, and put them to flight. 
But, yielding too much to their ardor, the conquerors 
caused the rest of their army to lose the fruit of their 
good fortune by amusing themselves in pursuing the fugi- 
tives. The Roman infantry, whose strength was invin- 
cible, seeing the other Palmyrian soldiers deprived of the 
assistance of their cavalry, made a vigorous attack upon 
them, and put them in disorder. The cavalry of the Ro- 
mans, reanimated by the success of their infantry, rallied 
and enabled Aurelian to gain a decisive victory. 

The enemy had suffered considerable loss. Zenobia, 
unable to keep the field any longer, shut herself up in 
Palmyra, her capital, where she was soon besieged by the 
Romans. Palmyra, a town famous in antiquity, had been 
founded by Solomon,* and had gradually increased in 
prosperity and wealth, till, under Odenat and Zenobia, it 
reached a surprising degree of splendor, as its magnifi- 
cent remains still testify. The situation of that city in 
the deserts of Syria, between the Roman and Persian do- 
minions, rendered it a very important place ; the more so, 
as it was well fortified, and abundantly supplied with 
troops, arms and engines of war. 

By these means of defence, Zenobia sustained the siege 
with a courage proportioned to the vigor of the attack, 
and which excited the admiration of Aurelian himself. 
" Truly incredible," he said in a letter which he then 
wrote, "is the quantity of darts and stones which she 

* II Paralip. vii, 4. 



118 MODERN HISTORY. P„t r. 

pours upon us ; she does not leave us one moment of rest, 
day or night." Unhappily for the besieged, bodies of 
auxiliary troops upon which they relied for assistance, 
were defeated by Aurelian, and provisions began to fail 
in the town. In this extremity, the queen set out during 
the night, to go and implore the aid of the Persians. But 
Aurelian, being informed of her escape, sent a detach- 
ment of cavalry, which overtook her, and made her pris- 
oner as she was about to cross the Euphrates. She was 
immediately conducted to Aurelian, and appeared before 
him with an undaunted air. To his question, why she 
had been so bold as to oppose the emperors of Rome, this 
witty and skilful princess answered : ** You I consider as 
a real emperor ; but Galienus and such as resembled him, 
I never thought worthy of that title, nor could I see any 
reason why I should not maintain my power against them, 
and refuse to submit to their control." 

On the news of the capture of the queen. Palmyra sur- 
rendered, and being well and generously treated by the 
conqueror, appeared to him a secure conquest. However, 
the submission of the Palmyrians lasted little longer than 
the time of his presence among them : after his departure, 
they revolted and slaughtered the Roman garrison. As 
soon as the news of this treacherous act reached the em- 
peror, on his return to Rome, he hastened back with his 
victorious troops, took Palmyra a second time, and put- 
ting the inhabitants to the sword, reduced the town to a 
state of desolation equal to its former glory. As for Ze- 
nobia, she was led to Rome, and obtained from her con- 
queror an honorable retreat, where she spent in quiet the 
remainder of her life. 

Besides the eastern provinces, Aurelian also recovered 
Gaul and some other countries of the West, which, from 
the time of Galienus, had been occupied by the barba- 
rians, or formed, under their governors, into separate 
states. Most of those exploits were performed with sur- 
prising rapidity (a. d. 273). 



A. D. 270-275. AURELIAN. 119 

Having thus pacified the whole empire, and restored it 
to its ancient limits, Aurelian applied himself to estab- 
lish order in every department of the public administra- 
tion. He took many excellent measures for that purpose ; 
but he did not sufficiently curb the violence of his temper, 
which prompted him to acts of cruelty. His inflexible 
rigor, after causing the death of many, became the occa- 
sion of his own ruin. Suspecting Mnestheus, his secre- 
tary, of malversation, he threatened him with condign 
punishment; and it was well known that punishment 
usually followed his threats. Mnestheus, who probably 
knew himself to be guilty, resolved to escape the danger, 
and for this end devised a dark and horrid plot. Coun- 
terfeiting the emperor's hand-writing, which he had long 
practised, he drew up a proscription list of the principal 
officers of the army, and found means to bring it to their 
notice. The officers did not suspect the forgery. Alarmed 
at their supposed danger, they concerted together, and, 
during the march of the troops whom Aurelian was then 
leading against the Persians, they fell upon him at a mo- 
ment when he was accompanied by a small guard, and 
despatched him with their swords, in the fifth year of his 
reign, and sixty-third of his age. All his murderers were 
punished, Mnestheus first, and the others sooner or later ; 
and though Aurelian was little regretted by several per- 
sons, the people and the army seemed to vie with each other 
in honoring the memory of a prince who, notwithstanding 
the short duration of his government, had rendered highly 
important services to the empire (a. d. 275). 

The Christians did not at first experience any particular 
rigor from Aurelian ; he rather seemed disposed to treat 
them according to the laws of equity, as he did his other 
subjects. But his feelings being afterwards, through 
human considerations, changed in their regard, the ninth 
general persecution broke out, and though short, made 
many martyrs. 



120 MODERN HISTORY. P^tl. 



INTERREGNUM— TACITUS.— A. d. 275—276. 

The death of Aurelian gave rise to an event almost 
unexampled in history, a contest of mutual deference 
between the army and the senate. During the space of 
six or eight months, they several times referred to each 
other the election of a sovereign ; and, what is still more 
extraordinary, affairs remained perfectly quiet all that 
time. 

At last the senate, yielding to the wishes of the army, 
named Tacitus, one of its chief members, a man of great 
wisdom and experience, and a descendant, so at least he 
considered himself, of the illustrious historian of the same 
name. He reluctantly accepted the dangerous dignity; 
notwithstanding the equity of his administration, and the 
success of his exertions against the barbarians, he was 
after a very short reign, killed by a rebellious soldiery. 
Some relate however that he died of a fever. 



PROBUS.*— A. D. 276—282. 

The legions of the East now raised to the throne their 
commander Probus, a general of uncommon merit, and 
who to extraordinary probity signified by his name, united 
wonderful courage and greatness of soul. A prince of this 
character was peculiarly fitted for the time and circum- 
stances in which he lived. The empire was attacked on 
all sides by the barbarians ; Probus defeated them all, and 
drove them back beyond the frontiers. The Germans es- 
pecially felt the invincible strength of his arms, by the 

* We purposely omit mentioning in the catalogue of Roman empe- 
rors, Florianus, a brother of Tacitus, who took the purple and was ac- 
knowledged by a considerable portion of the troops, but for some weeks 
only. The same had also happened, in the beginning of the reign of 
Aurelian, to Quintillus, a brother of Claudius II. 



A. D. 276—2 



PROBUS. 121 



heavy losses which he inflicted on their nation. In a 
single campaign, he destroyed four hundred thousand of 
them, and those who escaped, were so much intimidated, 
that, for several years, they did not venture to renew their 
incursions. 

Probus resolved also to check the pride of the Persians, 
and marched into the East against their king Varanes. 
He had already stationed his troops upon the mountains 
of Armenia, from which the enemy's country was seen, 
when the Persian monarch sent ambassadors to him. The 
audience which they obtained, recalls the plainness and 
magnanimity of the Romans of ancient times. Probus 
was seated on the grass, and eating his dinner, which 
consisted of old peas and salt meat, when the Persian 
ambassadors arrived in his presence. " I am," said he to 
them, ** the Roman emperor ; go, and tell your master, 
that if he does not, on this very day, bind himself to re- 
pair the damage which he has done to the Romans, he will 
see, before the end of the month, every part of his king- 
dom laid waste, and as bare as my head is." At the same 
time, he took off his cap, to let them see his head which 
was entirely bald. He added that, if they wished to eat, 
they were welcome to a part of his dinner ; if not, they 
must leave the camp without delay, their commission be- 
ing executed. The king of Persia, alarmed at this news, 
hastened in person to the camp of the Romans, and con- 
cluded the treaty on the conditions laid down by the 
emperor. 

Not long after this, Probus, to prevent the soldiers from 
remaining idle, made them drain a marsh near Syrmium 
in Pannonia. They revolted, and killed this most excel- 
lent emperor, whose loss was seriously felt and deeply 
regretted by the whole empire. For, among all the 
princes that ever sat upon the throne of the Caesars, it 
would be difficult to name one superior to Probus. Ever 
successful in war, he however had recourse to arms 
through necessity only, preferring honorable peace to 
11 



122 MODERN HISTORY 



Tart I, 



military glory. As moderate perhaps as Marcus-Aure- 
lius, he was more fit for war ; as a general, at least equal 
to Aurelian, he was milder and more gentle in his dispo- 
sition; alwa^'s attentive to the happiness of his subjects; 
always engaged in useful undertakings, and in endeavor- 
ing to make the labor of his soldiers conducive to the 
advantages of peace. During his reign, a space of 
about six years, he built or repaired seventy cities, and 
formed a great number of excellent generals, several of 
whom successively became emperors after him, viz., 
Carus, Diocletian, Maximian-Hercules and Constantius- 
Chlorus. The empire, raised from its declining state by 
Claudius II, and restored to its former glory by Aurelian, 
attained under Probus its greatest splendor ; and, had not 
the crime of the soldiers shortened his days, he might 
have revived the fortunate age of the Antonines or of 
Augustus. 

CARUS, AND HIS TWO SONS, CARINUS AND NUMERIAN. 

A. D. 282—284. 

After the death of Probus in 282, Carus, the com- 
mander of the praetorian guard, was judged by the sol- 
diers worthy of filling his place. He reigned sixteen 
months, during which he found sufficient time to over- 
throw the Sarmatians in a great battle, and, besides de- 
feating the Persians also on different occasions, took some 
of their principal cities, and carried terror into the very 
heart of their empire. He intended to pursue his advan- 
tage further, but was killed, according to common report, 
by a thunderbolt, whilst in his tent near the river Tigris. 

He left two sons, Carinus and Numerian ; the former, 
a profligate and brutal, the latter, a gentle and learned 
prince, and so affectionate to his father, that he lost his 
sight by weeping for the death of Carus. Both seemed 
to have mounted the throne only to be assassinated ; Nu- 
merian, by his father-in-law, whilst he was borne in a lit- 
ter ; and Carinus, during a battle, by one of his own officers. 



A. D. 284-306. 



123 



DIOCLETIAN AND MAXIMIAN; 

AFTERWARDS 

CONSTANTIUS-CHLORUS AND GALERIUS.— a. d. 284—306. 

Diocletian had no share in the murder of his prede- 
cessors, but, upon the unanimous choice of the army, 
willingly occupied their place, for which his high office 
in the army seemed to have fitted him. Shortly after his 
accession, he associated to himself in the government of 
the state, Maximian, surnamed Hercules, a greater war- 
rior than himself, though not so skilful a politician. Both 
of them sustained, by their victories against the surround- 
ing barbarians, the majesty and reputation of the empire: 
Great Britain, however, was severed from it for ten years, 
under the skilful usurper Carausius, and his successor 
AUectus. 

But the hostile tribes of Pannonia and Germany, seemed 
to be multiplied by their very defeats, and meditated new 
invasions. In order to oppose so many enemies with 
greater facility and success, it was resolved by the two 
emperors, that each one of them should take an assistant, 
with the inferior title of Csesar. The choice of Maximian 
fell on Constantius-Chlorus, a man still more worthy of 
esteem for his equity, wisdom and liberality, than for his 
noble extraction and great ability in arms. He ruled with 
admirable prudence the portion of the empire allotted to 
him, namely, Spain, Gaul and Great Britain, which last 
he reconquered. The barbarians were repulsed by his 
repeated victories, and the people enjoyed great happiness 
under his truly paternal government. In return, he pos- 
sessed the affection of all, as the following anecdote, re- 
lated by Eusebius, testifies.* 

Constantius, for fear of distressing his provinces, levied 
so few taxes, that the treasury was empty. Diocletian, 

* Euseb. in vita Constant. 1. i. c. 14. 



124 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part 



who was of a very diflferent disposition, sent to reprove 
him for his neglect. Constantius requested the deputies 
to remain for some days with him, and during that inter- 
val, sent notice to the richest inhabitants of the provinces, 
that he was in want of money ; all hastened to bring their 
gold and silver to the treasury, which was soon filled. 
Then Constantius requested the deputies to examine the 
money, and said to them: ** All that you see, has long 
since been mine ; but I had left it in trust in the hands of 
my people." He then returned the whole to the owners ; 
being certain of obtaining the same assistance, whenever 
he v/ould be in want, and justly persuaded that the safest 
treasure of a prince is the love of his subjects. 

The choice which Diocletian made of Galerius for his 
assistant in the East, was not so happy. This Galerius 
had been a cow-herd, and, though he afterwards passed 
through the usual military grades, he still retained too 
much of his origin. In his actions, as well as his corpu- 
lence, there was much more to inspire aversion and ter- 
ror, than to conciliate affection and esteem.* His only 
talent was for war, and even in war he sometimes evinced 
greater valor than prudence. Being sent by Diocletian 
to oppose the Persian king Narses, who threatened Syria 
with an invasion, he imprudently risked a battle with a 
small number of troops, and was conquered. The empe- 
ror, who liked nothing so much as prudence, was indig- 
nant at a defeat caused by such temerity, and to make 
Galerius feel his displeasure, when he returned, let him 
follow his car a considerable way on foot, though vested 
in purple. 

Galerius, instead of being discouraged by these affronts, 
conceived a most ardent desire of effacing the disgrace of 
his defeat. He succeeded beyond expectation. With a 

* Erat corpus moribus con^ruens, status celsus, caro ingens, et in 
horrendam magnitudinem diri'usa et inflata. Denique et verbis, et acti- 
bus, et aspectu, terror! omnibus ac formidini fuit. — Lacianiius, de morte 
'per&ecut. No. ix. 



A. D. 284-306. DIOCLETIAN, ETC. • 125 

body of twenty-five thousand men, he attacked the Per- 
sians in their camp, killed twenty thousand of their num- 
ber, and took a great number of prisoners, with an im- 
mense booty. Narses, thus deprived of his army and 
resources by a single blow, sued for peace, which was 
granted him upon the cession of several provinces (a. d. 
297). 

If Galerius had been humbled by his defeat, he was not 
less elated with victory. He from that time assumed a 
greater share of authority in the government, and chiefly 
directed his increasing power against Christianity. His 
mother, a peevish woman and much devoted to the wor- 
ship of her idols, had inspired him with a mortal hatred 
against the Christians, and he left nothing undone to pre- 
vail upon Diocletian to persecute them to death. The 
emperor, naturally moderate, for a long time rejected 
the cruel proposal. Galerius then had recourse to the 
calumny formerly made use of by Nero in a similar cir- 
cumstance. By secret orders and management, he caused 
the imperial palace at Nicomedia to be set on fire, laid the 
odious deed to the charge of the Christians, and the better 
to show his conviction of their guilt, ran away with appa- 
rent fright, saying that he did not like to be burnt by those 
enemies of both gods and emperors. 

At length Diocletian yielded, and in the year 303, is- 
sued his edicts for the tenth general persecution, the most 
violent and bloody that the Church ever suffered. Racks 
and fires, boiling oil and melted lead, sharp stakes and 
burning pincers, in a word, the most acute and exquisite 
torments were employed against the worshippers of Christ, 
and in every age, rank and state of society, many were 
the victims of that frightful persecution. A particular 
account of its enormities belongs rather to Ecclesiastical 
History. It suffices here to say, with Lactantius and 
Eusebius, both grave, learned and contemporary histo- 
rians, that the whole earth, with the exception of Gaul, 

11* 



126 MODERN HISTORY. Parti. 

was a prey to the fury of three wild beasts,* and that it is 
impossible to tell how many and how eminent they were 
who presented themselves in every city and country, as 
martyrs in the cause of Christ.t At Nicomedia, where 
the persecution commenced, persons of every description 
were put to death. On account of their numbers, whole 
companies were burnt together; while others were be- 
headed, or cast into the sea ; a vast number perished in this 
manner with their bishop Anthimus. At Tarsus, Alex- 
andria, Antioch, in Mesopotamia, Pontus, etc., crowds 
of Christians were likewise tortured in different ways. 
In Thebais, it frequently happened, during the course of 
several years, that from ten to a hundred persons suffered 
martyrdom together on the same day. A little before, 
in the north of Italy, six thousand six hundred soldiers, 
who composed the Theban legion, chose to be butchered 
by their companions, rather than renounce their faith. In 
Phrygia, a whole city, inhabited entirely by Christians, 
was surrounded by a large body of soldiers, who set 
fire to it, and all the inhabitants were consumed in the 
flames, whilst invoking the name of our Savior.J 

In a word, such was the rage of the persecutors, and 
such the quantity of Christian blood spilt by them through- 
out the empire, that they hoped for a time to succeed in 
the design of abolishing Christianity. But they boasted 
in vain: the church of Christ stood, under the sword of 
persecution, as firm and strong as ever, whereas dreadful 
calamities began to fall on the persecutors. 

Diocletian had hitherto reigned with great glory, and 
with a superiority of political talents that conciliated to 
him the respect of all his associates in the empire. But, 
in the year 304, he lost his health, and various misfor- 
tunes harassed him and frequently disturbed his reason. 
In that state, Galerius advised, or rather compelled him 

* De morte persecutorum, No. xvi. f Eccles. Hist. lib. viii, c. 4. 
X See note C. 



*. D. 284— 306. iJiw^^JUEiXiAn, s:jx^, 1^7 

by threats to give up the government, and to quit, together 
with Maximian, the imperial purple. They did so in 305, 
and were thus reduced to the condition of private citi- 
zens, whilst Constantius-Chlorus and Galerius, became 
emperors, two new Caesars being appointed to fill their 
vacant places. 

After his resignation, Diocletian retired to Salona in 
Dalmatia, his native country, where he lived eight years 
longer, amusing himself in the culture of a small garden, 
an occupation which he at length preferred to the honors 
of the throne. But life became burdensome to him, when 
he learned the destruction of his statues and the triumph 
of Christianity under Constantine. Lactantius relates* 
that, seeing himself despised and loaded with disgrace, 
he was in perpetual uneasiness, and could neither eat nor 
sleep. He was heard to sigh and groan continually ; fre- 
quently shed tears, and threw himself sometimes on his 
bed, sometimes on the ground. At last excessive grief 
and starvation, and perhaps poison, carried him off in the 
68th year of his age. 

The fate of Maximian was not less wretched. He at- 
tempted two or three times, but in vain, to resume the 
sovereign power which he had abdicated, and even to 
murder his son-in-law, Constantine. Being detected, he 
hanged himself in despair. 

But the justice of God no where appeared more visible 
than in the death of Galerius, who had been the most 
cruel of these impious persecutors. He was attacked 
with a frightful disease, the same exactly which, in more 
ancient times, had afflicted the impious kings Antiochus 
and Herod Agrippa, for having also waged war against 
God and his servants.! An ulcer corroded and laid open 
his very bowels. His body was a mass of corruption and 
swarmed with vermin : the stench infected, not only his 
palace, but also the whole neighborhood in the city of Sar- 

* De morte persec. No. 42. f II Macchab. ix.— Act. Apost. xii. 



128 MODERN HISTORY. P^rti. 

dica, and was intolerable even to his own servants, as 
Eusebius testifies.* His pains were so acute as to wring 
from him the most agonizing cries ; nor could any means 
be devised to alleviate his suiferings. The horrid distem- 
per continued to increase in violence, till at length it put 
an end to the emperor's life, in the nineteenth year of his 
reign. 

Thus did the persecutors of Christianity disappear from 
the earth, with the evident marks of the wrath of God 
upon them. As Constantius-Chlorus had not imitated 
their example, so likewise he did not share in their disas- 
ters. If he could not easily prevent all acts of violence 
in the provinces, he himself at least never tormented the 
Christians ; on the contrary, he always manifested the 
most favorable dispositions in their regard. When the 
bloody edicts of Diocletian Avere brought to him, he 
feigned at first to be willing to put them in execution. 
Assembling the Christians of his palace, he told them that 
they must, in compliance with the imperial orders, re- 
nounce either their religion, or their employments and dig- 
nities. Some indeed were not ashamed to sacrifice spir- 
itual to temporal interest ; but the majority appeared fully 
disposed to lose every thing on earth for conscience- sake. 
Then Constantius, disclosing his real sentiments, dis- 
missed the former from his service, saying that persons so 
attached to their own interests, and so treacherous to 
their God, would not be more faithful to their prince. 
But he kept near his person those who had continued firm 
in their faith, declaring them worthy to be intrusted with 
the care of his most important concerns. 

One thing gave him much uneasiness, namely, the ab- 
sence of his eldest son, Constantine, who having been 
long before sent to the court of Diocletian as a hostage 
for his father's fidelity, was unjustly detained there by 
Galerius, and charged by this wicked prince with a 
thousand perilous commissions. Constantius, informed 

* Eccles. Hist. lib. viii. c. 16. 



x.D. 284-306. DIOCLETIAN, ETC. 129 

of these continual dangers to which his son was exposed, 
most urgently solicited his return, to which, at last, Gale- 
rius pretended to consent, giving the young prince per- 
mission to set out on the following day from Nicomedia, 
but resolving at the same time, to find some new pretext 
for delay. But Constantine, aware of the danger, started 
at night, without the knowledge of the treacherous empe- 
ror, and travelled with the utmost haste, taking care to 
kill or disable all the post-horses on his road, to prevent 
the possibility of his being overtaken. The following day, 
Galerius was transported with rage at the news of his es- 
cape, and ordered that he should be pursued, but in vain : 
Constantine was already beyond the reach of danger. 

He joined his father just in time to close the eyes of 
that excellent prince, who died at York in Great Britain 
(a. d. 306). Constantius displayed, in his last moments, 
the same wisdom and prudence which had characterized 
his whole life. Instead of meeting with any of the catas- 
trophies which befel the other contemporary princes, he 
quietly expired in the midst of an aiFectionate family, 
having the consolation to leave behind him a son so worthy 
of being his successor, and who was moreover destined 
by Divine Providence to be the first emperor that should 
make an open profession of Christianity, and give peace 
to the church after three hundred years of sufferings. 



PART II. 

FEOM THE ACCESSION OF CONSTANTINE (A. D. 306), TO THE DOWN"- 
FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE WEST (A. D. 476). 



CONSTANTINE THE GREAT.— a. d. 306—337. 

Possessed of an elevated genius, great heroism, a noble 
appearance, a generous heart, Constantine seemed, from 
the beginning, well qualified to reign over the universe. 
For some years however, his authority was confined to 
Britain, Spain and Gaul: the other provinces were yet 
under the sway of Galerius and his associates, Licinius 
and Maximin II ; to whom must be added the son of Maxi- 
mian-Hercules, Maxentius, who had made himself master 
of Rome and of all Italy. 

Besides this partition of the empire, which unavoidably 
weakened the forces of each emperor, the dominions of 
Constantine were the most exposed to the inroads of the 
German tribes, and particularly of the Franks. He engaged 
in a long struggle against them, and on his part conducte^i 
it with great vigor and severity, allowing no quarter in 
order to force them into submission. They were checked 
for a time ; and when they began to meditate new attacks, 
he sent against them his eldest son Crispus, who gained a 
signal victory, and joyfully returned through snow and 
ice to offer his father the homage of his first exploit. The 
Franks, after this severe lesson, remained quiet during 
the whole reign of Constantine. 

He had now to contend with more formidable enemies. 
Maxentius, the tyrant of Rome, a prince sullied with 
every vice, had declared his hostile designs, which he 
intended to support by force of arms, having one hundred 



fc.D. 306-337. CONSTANTINE THE GREAT. 131 

and ninety-eight thousand warriors at his command. 
Constantine had scarcely half that number, and was 
obliged to leave a part of his army in Gaul, to defend its 
frontiers against the barbarians. Aware of this great dis- 
parity of forces, his mind was assailed by anxiety, and he 
began to think of obtaining the assistance of Heaven. 
The dreadful fate of the persecutors of Christianity had 
already given him some just notions respecting the true 
God whom the Christians adored. That God he fervently 
invoked, entreating him to be his protector ; and the Al- 
mighty heard a prayer which came from a sincere and an 
upright heart. 

As the emperor was marching with his troops into Italy, 
on a certain day in the afternoon, he saw in the sky, just 
over the sun, the figure of a luminous cross, with the fol- 
lowing inscription : (EN TOTTfi NIKA) In this conquer. 
His army, as well as himself, saw the splendid prodigy, 
which struck all the beholders with astonishment.* Con- 
stantine was inspired to make a representation of that 
cross, and to use it as a standard in battle. He accord- 
ingly made the famous banner called Labarum, and being 
thus encouraged by evident marks of divine protection, 
confidently commenced the war against Maxentius. 

He first presented himself before Suza, a strong town 
at the entrance of Italy, took it by storm, and then ad- 
vanced towards Turin. He found there an army waiting 
in good order and ready to give him battle. A body of horse 
completely armed after the manner of the eastern cavalry, 
was its principal strength. Constantine, who knew that 
these cuirassiers, confined as they were in their armor, 
could only advance, and that the least motion either back- 
ward or to either side was extremely difficult for them, 

* The miraculous apparition of the cross to Constantine is placed 
beyond the reach of reasonable doubt, by the concurring testimonies of 
Socrates the historian, Sozomen, Philostorgius, etc., but especially of 
Eusebius, who expressly declares that he had learned it from the mouth 
of Constantine himself, who confirmed the assertion with his oath. 
Euseb. in vita Constant, lib. i, c. 27, 28. 



132 MODERN HISTORY. Panii. 

opened his ranks to receive them, and immediately 
his soldiers, with great clubs, struck down both horses 
and riders, and killed them all, without losing a single 
man on their side. The rest of the army of Maxentius 
was easily and completely routed. Turin received the 
conqueror with joy ; Milan, soon after, did the same, and 
the whole country on the left of the Po, from Turin to 
Brescia, willingly accepted his laws. His clemency 
served greatly to facilitate his conquests. He was not 
one of those haughty conquerors who mark their pro- 
gress with terror and devastation. The cities which sub- 
mitted to him had reason to rejoice at their good fortune, 
as they experienced from him nothing but benevolence and 
generosity. 

At Brescia, he was again opposed by a great body of 
horse, but this also yielded and retreated towards Verona, 
where a fresh and numerous army had been assembled, by 
order of Maxentius, under the command of Ruricius 
Pompeianus, a general of great repute. Constantine 
however, having safely crossed the Adige, did not hesi- 
tate to besiege Verona, and repelled all the attacks made 
to hinder his approach. Ruricius fearing that the city 
would soon be compelled to surrender, secretly with- 
drew, and raising another supply of troops, returned with 
them in order to fight Constantine, and force him to aban- 
don the siege. The emperor was, by that means, between 
the city and an army of enemies coming to attack him in 
his camp. In this perplexing situation, he formed his 
plan with equal bravery and judgment, and leaving a part 
of his troops to continue the siege of Verona, marched 
with the rest against Ruricius. He had fewer men than 
his adversary, and was obliged to draw up his whole army 
in a single line, in order to present a front equal to that 
of the enemy. But his prudence and valor made him a 
match for the foe, notwithstanding this disparity of num- 
bers. No sooner had he given the signal, than he threw 
himself into the thickest of the battle, being always fore- 



A.D. 306-337. CONSTANTTNE THE GREAT. 133 

most in the most dangerous places, with so little regard 
for his own safety, that his principal officers thought them- 
selves bound to complain of it after the victory, and to 
entreat him, with tears in their eyes, not to expose his 
life so much in future. 

The battle having commenced late in the evening, lasted 
until the night was far spent. Ruricius was killed upon 
the spot ; his army was destroyed or dispersed ; and 
the besieged city, having no longer any hope, submitted 
to the conqueror. The neighboring towns followed the 
example, and the whole country, as far as Rome, was 
opened to Constantine, who soon appeared at the head of 
his victorious army, in sight of that Capital. 

Maxentius, who had hitherto remained in Rome, was at 
last prevailed upon to put himself at the head of his le- 
gions. He accordingly marched out of the city, and ar- 
ranged his army along the Tiber. Constantine, on his 
side, when he drew near the enemy, arranged his troops 
as advantageously as possible ; he displayed his usual skill 
as a soldier and a general, and was so well seconded by 
his officers and soldiers, that the numerous troops of Max- 
entius were broken almost at the first onset. Such as 
resisted were cut to pieces ; the rest endeavored to cross 
the Tiber, either over a bridge or by swimming; but the 
bridge being broken by some accident, or by the weight 
and multitude of the fugitives, most of them were 
drowned, and Maxentius also perished. This happened 
on the twenty-eighth October (a. d. 312). 

On the following day Constantine made his solemn 
entry into Rome, where he was received with universal 
applause and exultation, as the deliverer of the empire. 
As a lasting monument of these great events, a magnifi- 
cent triumphal arch was built at the foot of mount Pala- 
tine, near the amphitheatre of Vespasian. The arch exists 
at this day. A statue was also erected in his honor in one 
of the public places of the city, representing him with a 
cross in his hand, and bearing the following inscription, a 

12 



134 MODERN HISTORY. j.artij,. 

token of his religious gratitude : *' By this salutary sign, 
the true mark of courage, I have delivered your city from 
the yoke of the tyrants, and restored the senate and the 
people of Rome to their ancient splendor." 

Constantine made no other use of the power which he 
had acquired by his victory, than to disband the praeto- 
rians, whom he reduced to the rank of common soldiers, 
and to destroy their camp, which had been so frequently, 
since the reign of Tiberius, the seat of disorder and rebel- 
lion. He made no innovation in the government, magis- 
tracy or offices, and abrogated no laws, except such as 
were useless or unjust, v. g. those against the Chris- 
tians, which he expressly annulled by a solemn edict. 
Nay more, he himself began from that time to make an 
open profession of Christianity, and to build splendid 
churches in honor of the true God by whom he had 
been so visibly protected. Hence, the same year 312, 
which beheld the triumph and conversion of Constan- 
tine, beheld also the complete triumph of the Christian 
Religion over her enemies, and may be considered as the 
real epoch of the downfall of idolatry, which, without be- 
ing persecuted, tottered to its fall, as soon as it was left 
to its natural w^eakness. 

Towards the time when Rome and Italy were delivered 
from the tyranny of Maxentius, Asia was likewise res- 
cued from her tyrant Maximin II, one of the two Caesars 
formerly appointed by Galerius, and, like him, one of the 
most cruel persecutors of the Church of Christ. Blinded 
by his ambition, he invaded the provinces of Licinius, but 
was conquered, near Byzantium, by a much smaller army 
than his own. The conquerors pursued him as far as Tar- 
sus in Cilicia, where seeing himself almost in the hands 
of his enemy, he tried to shorten his life by poison. The 
poison instead of producing immediate effect, brought on 
a dreadful disease. He was inwardly burnt, with excru- 
ciating tortures. In the excess of his pains, he rolled 
on the ground, and roaring in a frightful manner, dashed 



A. D. 5D6-337. CONST ANTINE THE GREAT. 135 

his head against the walls with such violence, that his eyes 
started from their sockets, a visible punishment of the 
cruelty with which he had caused the eyes of numbers of 
Christians to be put out, during the persecution. He ex- 
pired, after several days of intolerable suiFerings, in rage 
and despair. 

By his death, Licinius remained sole sovereign in the 
East. But Licinius himself, although a skilful general, 
was a cruel and worthless prince, an enemy to meft of 
learning, and, in his heart, a foe to religion, though to 
please Constantine, he at first joined with him in pub- 
lishing edicts in favor of the Christians. Believing him- 
self injured by the proposal of his colleague for a new and 
more adequate division of the empire, he raised armies to 
oppose the armies of Constantine. The two emperors, 
each at the head of his troops, met near Cibalis in Pan- 
nonia, where they commenced a sharp and well contested 
battle. It lasted from morning till night ; when at length 
Constantine's right wing began to obtain a decided ad- 
vantage, which led in a short time to a complete victory. 
Licinius finding himself totally defeated, fled to Syr- 
mium, and thence to Adrianople in Thrace, where he has- 
tened to raise new forces, in order to stop the progress of 
his enemy. Accordingly, another battle was fought near a 
place named Mardia. Here neither of the parties could 
claim the victory, nor could either of them be said to have 
been vanquished, though Licinius suffered more than his 
adversary;* but their nearly equal losses facilitated an 
accommodation. Constantine, on account of his previous 
success and greater actual resources, dictated the terms 
of the treaty, and obtained a considerable increase of his 
dominions (a. d. 314). 

This treaty, though greatly disadvantageous to Licinius, 
was not, like most treaties of the same kind, of short 



* This was, during the long reign of Constantine, the only battle in 
which he was not completely victorious. 



136 MODERN HISTORY. Partll. 

duration. It lasted eight years, during which the empire 
was enabled to recover from the continual shocks and 
convulsions which it had suffered ever since the death of 
Constantius-Chlorus. But, in the year 323, hostilities 
were again provoked by Licinius. Constantine, ever 
quick and active, immediately entered his enemy's terri- 
tory, and went in search of him, with an army of one 
hundred and twenty thousand foot and ten thousand 
horse. The troops of Licinius amounted to one hundred 
and fifty thousand infantry and fifteen thousand cavalry. 
He had moreover a powerful fleet consisting of three 
hundred and fifty galleys, to which Constantine could 
oppose only two hundred galleys, under the command of 
his son Crispus. 

The two land armies came in: sight of each other near 
Adrianople, but were still separated by the river Hebra. 
Licinius, being advantageously posted upon an eminence, 
kept himself on the defensive. Constantine earnestly 
desired to attack him, and as the river was an obstacle, 
his warlike ardor, which could not bear a state of inac- 
tivity, made him contrive a stratagem to surprise the ene- 
my. He ordered a quantity of wood to be cut, and 
cables to be prepared, as if he intended to throw a bridge 
over the Hebra, and whilst the men of Licinius were 
trying to impede the progress of this work, Constantine, 
with a small detachment, went higher up the river, to a 
place where he knew it to be fordable, and crossing it at 
the head of some horsemen, was soon after followed by 
his whole army. Licinius, thus unexpectedly attacked, 
and unable to retreat, was forced to tight. A great part 
of his troops made but little resistance. They were dis- 
concerted by the success of the enemy in passing the 
river, whilst the troops of Constantine were elated with 
the hope of victory. The event justified the fears of one 
party, and the expectations of the other. The army of 
Licinius was completely defeated, and his camp forced 
and taken; he himself fled with all possible speed to 



A. D. 306-337. 



CONST ANTINE THE GREAT. 137 



Byzantium, leaving thirty-three thousand of his men on 
the field of battle, the rest having scattered themselves 
through the neighboring woods and mountains. During 
the following days, all these vanquished fugitives surren- 
dered, and were kindly received. 

Constantine pursued Licinius, and blocked him up by 
land in Byzantium. In the meanwhile, two naval battles 
were fought on the narrow seas between Europe and Asia, 
in both of which Crispus, though much inferior in forces, 
so well availed himself first of the narrowness of the strait, 
and then of a strong and favorable wind, that the enemy's 
fleet was almost entirely destroyed. This enabled the 
victorious fleet of Constantine to advance towards By- 
zantium and to blockade it by sea, as it was already be- 
sieged by land. Licinius, aware of the imminent danger 
that threatened him, fled to Chalcedon on the opposite 
shore, not despairing of being still able to raise a suffi- 
cient force to try his fortune again. 

He was thus far successful in his plan ; for we find him 
at the head of one hundred and thirty thousand men, 
when his adversary, likewise crossing the strait, overtook 
him on the other side. The armies engaged near Chryso- 
polis, a suburb of Chalcedon ; and Licinius, in spite of all 
his efforts, experienced a new and signal overthrow. One 
hundred thousand of his men were either killed or taken 
prisoners, the rest dispersed, and he himself, seeing his 
party entirely ruined, consented to surrender (a. d. 323). 
He obtained leave to retire to Thessalonica, but shortly 
after was put to death, with his son and his chief general, 
either because he meditated new disturbance, or for other 
political reasons on the part of Constantine, who does not 
seem in this transaction to have sufficiently consulted the 
natural generosity of his heart. 

The other partisans of Licinius received much better 

treatment from the conqueror, being left by him in full 

possession of their estates and dignities. This clemency, 

not less than the perfect ability with which he had con- 

12* 



138 MODERN HISTORY. 

ducted the war, subdued to his power all the provinces of 
the East, and he was now acknowledged, without further 
obstacle, in the whole empire. Being thus free from the 
occupations and tumult of warfare, he applied himself to 
repair the evils of past disturbances bj the advantages of 
a profound and lasting peace. He enacted a variety of 
excellent laws, some in favor of poor laborers, chil- 
dren, orphans, widows, prisoners and slaves ; others 
against iniquitous judges, magistrates, governors, in a 
word, all the oppressors of his people. In a law which 
he published to all the subjects of the empire, he 
thus expressed himself: " If any one, of what rank and 
condition soever he may be, is confident that he can 
plainly and maifestly prove any injustice done to him by 
those who exercise authority in my name, let him apply to 
me personally ; I will myself hear him ; I will take cogni- 
zance of his cause; and if I find his allegations true, I 
will severely punish the man who shall have deceived me 
by a false appearance of integrity. So may the Almighty 
always favor and protect me, and keep the republic safe 
and flourishing." 

Such were the admirable views of Constantine with 
regard to the civil administration. He likewise applied 
himself with great care to maintain good order among the 
troops, and his zeal was crowned with success. It is 
remarkable that in the great number of civil wars in which 
he was engaged, no sedition, no revolt happened in his 
armies. He owed the tranquillity which he enjoyed in 
this respect, to his great qualities which commanded the 
esteem and admiration of his officers and soldiers, and to 
his behavior towards them, M'hich was properly tempered 
with indulgence and resolution. 

Like all other great princes of every age and country, 
Constantine loved and patronized letters. He himself 
cultivated them, and endeavored to procure the same ad- 
vantage to his sons, Crispus, Constantine, Constantius 
and Constans, giving them all an education suitable to 



D. 308—337 



CONSTANTINE THE GREAT. 139 



their birth and the high rank to which they were destined. 
Besides choosing for them excellent masters in every de- 
partment of literature, he himself was their first master, 
instructing them in Christian piety, in the science of gov- 
ernment, and in military exercises. He taught them 
early the necessity and the pleasure of doing good, by 
employing their tender hands, as soon as they could write, 
in signing gratuities and rewards. 

This great and good prince was particularly solicitous 
to make Christianity flourish. Nothing afforded him 
more pleasure than to learn its progress every where, 
and he himself contributed towards its advancement by 
his exhortation and example. Whilst he gloried in 
openly professing that holy religion, he invited, by an 
edict, all his subjects, without however forcing any one, 
to renounce their old superstitions, and embrace the true 
faith which Almighty God had manifested to the whole 
world in so signal a manner. The zealous emperor en- 
deavored also by letters to inspire Sapor II, king of Per- 
sia, with favorable dispositions towards the Christians of 
his kingdom. Not being able to succeed in this, he 
granted a safe and honorable retreat to those who were 
compelled to fly from the persecution raging in their 
country. In fine, it was through his protection that the 
first General Council of the Church was convened and 
celebrated at Nice, in Bithynia (a. d. 325). In this ven- 
erable assembly, three hundred and eighteen bishops, 
together with the legates of Pope St. Sylvester, con- 
demned the Arian heresy with its author Arius, who, 
contrary to the Scriptures and to the belief of preceding 
ages, denied the divinity of Christ. 

Until about that time, Constantine had reigned with 
such wisdom and happiness as to have rendered himself 
equal, perhaps superior, to the most accomplished and 
celebrated princes. But in the last twelve years of his 
life, he tarnished in some degree the great glory which he 
had previously acquired. An excessive goodness made 



140 MODERN HISTORY 



Part II. 



him leave unpunished the bad practices of many among 
the magistrates and other public officers ; this negligence 
gave rise to a greater number of vexations and miseries 
among the people. He also too easily gave credit to crafty 
and hypocritical persons, who abused his confidence, and 
induced him to banish, or exclude from favor, some of 
the most worthy men of the empire. His greatest fault 
was towards his own son Crispus, a young prince of un- 
common merit ; the emperor was so far deceived by an 
artful calumny, as to believe him guilty of an atrocious 
design, and, in the first moment of his indignation, caused 
him to be put to death. He soon perceived the calumny, 
and severely punished its authors; too late however for 
the unfortunate Crispus, whose hasty execution he could 
but bitterly lament. 

Constantine is likewise reproached with some faults in 
his government and political views, chiefly with having 
disunited the empire by the foundation of a second Capi- 
tal. How far this can be just matter of reproach, it is 
difficult to determine : the emperor's intention seems to 
have been pure, and worthy of a Christian prince. Wish- 
ing to make his residence in a place entirely purged from 
the remains of idolatry, and being exceedingly pleased 
with the situation of Byzantium, in Thrace, he built on 
that spot a magnificent city, called from his name Con- 
stantinople, and from that time established in it the prin- 
cipal seat of the empire (a. d. 330). 

The faults of Constantine, though real stains on his 
memory, must not however destroy the esteem and 
admiration due to his eminent qualities. Activity, ap- 
plication to affiiirs, piety and benevolence always shone 
conspicuous in him.* His alms to the poor and to all 

* Pagan writers themselves bear testimony to the virtues of Constan- 
tine. Libanius asserts (orat. 3d) that he was always engaged in con- 
triving or executing some great design for the public utility. Eutro- 
pius, in his Roman, hist. lib. x. writes of him thus : " Yir primo imperii 
tempore optimis principibus, ultimo mediis comparandus ; innumerae in 
eo animi corporisque virtutes claruerunt." The same, in substance, 



A. D. 306—337. 



CONSTANTINE THE GREAT. 141 



persons in distress, were immense ; his inclination to 
forgive injuries, wonderful. In a sedition which hap- 
pened in Eo-ypt, probably at Alexandria, the mutinous 
populace insulted the statues of the emperor. The cour- 
tiers, in order to aggravate the crime of the seditious, 
represented that their rage had gone so far as to throw 
stones at the face of their prince, which still bore the 
marks of so foul an outrage. Upon this, Constantine, 
with a smile, put his hands to his face, and mildly an- 
swered ; *' I do not feel any hurt," thus refuting the 
exaggerated charge of the courtiers, and reducing them to 
silence by a magnanimous reply which will never be 
forgotten by posterity. The emperor acted consistently 
with his principles. Pitying the frenzy of those who had 
been guilty of such disrespect, he contented liimself with 
taking proper measures to prevent the like disorders in 
future. 

This indulgence and goodness of Constantine for his 
people, gained him the affection of all ; whilst his great- 
ness and glory attracted the respect, not only of the 
Romans, but even of all the barbarous nations around the 
empire. His palace was crowded with ambassadors from 
the Germans, the Goths, the Sarmatians, the Persians, 
the Indians, the Ethiopians, and other distant nations, as 
different from each other in their features and complexion, 
as in their dress and ornaments, but all filled with senti- 
ments of deep veneration for the emperor. According to 
the difference of their countries and climes, they brought 
him a great variety of presents; such as crowns of gold, 
diadems enriched with precious stones, arms of a parti- 
cular kind, animals unknown in Europe, etc. Constan- 
tine graciously received their presents, and in return 

IS said by Praxagoras, Aurelius Victor, and others, whose testimo- 
nies, not being liable to any charge of party prepossession, are 
by far preferable to the invectives of the angry Zozinius and of Julian 
the Apostate, both of them the worthy predecessors of our modern infi- 
dels, in their hatred against a prince who was the constant protector of 
Christianity, 



142 MODERN HISTORY. fmU. 

made them others of much greater value. Many of these 
foreigners were so much struck at the splendor of his 
court, so delighted with his noble and affable behavior, 
and conceived such esteem for his virtue, in proportion as 
they became better acquainted with him, that, forgetting 
their own country, they attached themselves to the ser- 
vice of so great and so excellent a prince. 

The glory of his arms contributed to crown the splen- 
dor of his latter years. He had already, during the in- 
terval of his wars against Licinius, defeated the Goths 
and the Sarmatians in many battles. But that first les- 
son not having sufficiently subdued their restless spirit, 
upon their renewing the hostilities in the year 332, he 
again so signally defeated those fierce nations, that they 
were obliged to sue for peace, and to give hostages. In 
fine, he showed the same resolution against the Persians 
who had lately attacked Mesopotamia: though much 
advanced in age, he prepared to march against them, and 
the mere terror of his name made them retire beyond the 
Tigris. 

Shortly after, Constantine fell dangerously ill, and 
having prepared himself for death by an increase of 
piety, departed this life, on the 22d of May, 337, at the 
age of nearly sixty-four, after a glorious reign of thirty- 
one years, the longest since that of Augustus. The 
splendor of his military, political and religious achieve- 
ments gained him the surname of Great which posterity 
has confirmed. No grief was ever more universal, more 
sincere and more strongly expressed, than that occa- 
sioned by his death. No sooner was it made known, 
than his guards rent their garments, and in the excess of 
their sorrow, struck their heads and fell to the ground, call- 
ing him with lamentable sobs and cries their beloved mas- 
ter, sovereign, and father. The tribunes, the centurions, 
and the soldiers seemed unwilling to survive a prince, 
whose liberality they had constantly experienced, whose 
heroic valor they so frequently admired on the field of 



A. D. 337-361. 



ETC. 143 



battle. The inhabitants of Nicomedia ran confusedly 
through the streets, sighing and weeping; it seemed as if 
each family had lost the best of parents. In a word, all 
the empire, and Rome itself, which he had left for ano- 
ther residence, were plunged in the deepest affliction ; and 
so dear to all was the memory of their deceased sove- 
reign, that both the people of this Capital, and the many 
legions scattered through the provinces, unanimously 
resolved, without the possibility of common deliberation, 
to acknowledge none as emperors, except the sons of 
Constantine. 



CONSTANTIUS AND HIS BROTHERS CONSTANTINE II. 
AND CONSTANS.— A. d. 337—361. 

The three brothers divided the ettipire among them, 
Gaul, Britain and Spain were allotted to Constantine, 
who was the eldest ; Italy, Illyria and Africa, to Con- 
stans, who was the youngest; and the provinces of the 
East, to Constantius. It might seem that every thing 
had been settled to their common satisfaction ; however, 
Constantine remained only a short time contented with 
his department. After several useless complaints, he 
endeavored to encroach upon the territories of Constans, 
but perished in the attempt, being slain in ambuscade 
near Aquileia (a. d. 340). Constatis then seized the 
estates of the vanquished, and added them to his own. 

Constantius took no share in the quarrels of his 
brothers. Being moderate and humane by nature, but 
weak, suspicious, jealous, even cruel through ambition,* 
and always surrounded by evil counsellors, who knew 
how to conceal their wickedness under the mask of vir- 

* He is commonly thought to have connived at the murder of his 
tincles and nearly all his cousins, which, under pretence of zeal, was 
perpetrated by the soldiers in the beginning of his reign. His brothers, 
on the contrary, do not appear to have in "any way participated in th« 
odious and cruel deed, nor was it ever laid to their charge. 



144 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part II. 



tue, he made it his chief occupation to disturb the 
church in favor of the Arians, and obstinately to perse- 
cute the great St. Athanasius, patriarch of Alexandria, 
and the other defenders of the Nicene faith. However, 
he was also engaged, for many years, in opposing the 
repeated attacks of the Persians, and this he did with 
very little ability and success; yet, the enemy did not 
gain any decisive advantage, and having three times 
assaulted the city of Nisibis, was as many times repelled 
with considerable loss. 

Another revolution in the West soon attracted the 
attention of Constantius. His brother Constans fell a 
victim to a conspiracy artfully contrived by a certain 
Magnentius, who commanded some troops in Gaul, and 
pretended to reign in his place. At the first news of 
this disastrous event, Constantius hastened from the East 
to punish the usurper, who, on his side, had made exten- 
sive preparations to repel the attack. The famous battle 
of Mursa, which cost the lives of sixty thousand men, 
decided the contest in favor of Constantius. After most 
tremendous exertions made by both parties, the troops of 
Maxentius were completely routed, and either destroyed 
by the cavalry of Constantius, or precipitated into the 
river Drave. In this distress, Magnentius, seeing him- 
self on the point of falling into the hands of the enemy, 
cast oiF the imperial insignia, took the horse and garments 
of a common soldier, and fled in full speed across the 
Alps, until he arrived at Aquileia. After a short stay 
there, he retired to Lyons in Gaul, where he tried the 
chance of another battle, but was again defeated. At 
length, finding himself abandoned by his own troops, he 
put his family to the sword, and then killed himself, after 
an usurped reign of three years (a. d. 353). 

Thus all the parts of the empire were again united 
under the same sovereign. But such a burden was too 
heavy for Constantius, and he himself being sensible how 
much he stood in need of an assistant, made choice, for 



A. D. 337—361. 



ETC. 145 



this purpose, of his cousin Julian, who had, on account of 
his tender age, been spared in the massacre of his family. 
He conferred on him the title of Caesar, and sent him to 
defend the frontiers near the Rhine against the inroads of 
the Germans. After having freed himself from the cares 
of war, he applied more than ever to his favorite occupa- 
tion of promoting the cause of Arianism, Bj his orders, 
the orthodox bishops were driven from their sees, banished, 
imprisoned, and compelled by threats anil ill-treatment to 
sign ambiguous formulas which might afterwards be made 
subservient to a confirmation of the heresy. But neither 
artifice nor violence could make Arianism prevail in the 
church, and even in the midst of the storm, the far greater 
number of pastors as well as faithful always closely ad- 
hered to the profession of the true faith, as is attested by 
St. Athanasius,* Sulpitius-Severus,t and others. 

Whilst Constantius disturbed the whole Christian flock, 
Julian was discharging his duties and fulfilling his peril- 
ous commission in Gaul with great success. This prince, 
who afterwards deserved the surname of ^^postate, sit first 
displayed only great qualities. His principal care was to 
re-establish good order in the provinces, and discipline in 
the armies. Attacked by numerous hordes of Franks and 
Alemanni, he not only delivered the country from their 
invasion, but entirely defeated seven of their kings in a 
great battle near Strasburg, pursued them beyond the 
Rhine, and subdued them by repeated victories. 

The emperor became jealous and alarmed at the increas- 
ing glory of the young Caesar ; and, being moreover at- 
tacked anew by the Persians, he thought it a proper op- 
portunity to deprive Julian of a considerable portion of his 
troops. Accordingly, some legions were commanded to 
depart from Gaul into Asia. This order caused general 
discontent, both among the soldiers, and the inhabitants 



* S. Athan. Epist. ad Jovianum Imper. No. 2. 
t Sulp. Sever, hist. sacr. lib. ii, passim. 



13 



146 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part II. 



who entreated them not to abandon a country which they 
had so well defended ; at last, the troops revolted, an^ 
proclaimed Julian emperor. With real or feigned re- 
luctance, he accepted the title offered him by the soldiers, 
took the diadem, and not being able to settle his differ- 
ence with Constantius in a peaceful manner, advanced as 
far as Sirmium to fight against that prince, who after all 
had been his benefactor as well as sovereign. Fortunately 
for his cause, the death of Constantius, which happened 
just at that time (November 361), delivered him from his 
perplexing position, and preserved the empire from the 
horrors of a new civil war. 



JULIAN.— A. D. 361—363. 

Julian now proceeded without opposition to Constan- 
tinople, where he was immediately acknowledged, as well 
as in all the provinces. The beginning of his reign was 
remarkable for the ardor and activity with which he af- 
fected to redress the abuses of the late government, and 
it cannot be denied that he greatly improved, in a short 
time, many parts of the civil and military administration. 
But in this prince, good was always attended with evil. 
He aimed at nothing so much as the restoration of the 
worship of idols, and the destruction of the religion of 
Christ, which he had already publicly renounced. This 
twofold object he endeavored to effect by dissimulation 
and artful measures, more than by open force and vio- 
lence. Whilst all favors were lavished on a crowd of 
miserable sophists and magicians by whom he was con- 
stantly surrounded, the Christians experienced nothing 
from him but contempt, vexations and disgrace. On all 
occasions he loaded them with insult, and openly violated 
in their regard the most common laws of equity, exclud- 
ing them from the rights of citizens, and from fair trial 
in the courts of justice ; forbidding them to teach and to 



A. D. 361—363. 



JULIAN. ^ 14' 



be taught in schools ; not admitting any one to offices of 
trust and authority; continually endeavoring to make 
apostates; and, notwithstanding his feigned moderation, 
often giving secret orders to put to death those on whom 
other means of seduction had produced no effect. 

Julian desired above all things to bring the charge of 
imposture on the predictions of our Savior* and of the 
prophet Danielt concerning the entire and irreparable 
desolation of the Temple of Jerusalem. Nearly three 
hundred years after it had been destroyed under Vespa- 
sian and Titus, he undertook to raise it from its ruins. 
Although the Jews had no great share in his affection, he 
invited them, by a flattering letter, to concur in the en- 
terprise ; and, uniting effects with promises, he sent a 
great number of workmen to Jerusalem, ordered his 
treasurers to furnish money and every thing necessary for 
the rebuilding of the Temple, and appointed one of his 
confidential officers, named Alypius, to enforce the exe- 
cution of his orders. 

The news was no sooner spread abroad, than the Jews, 
elated with joy, flocked from all parts to Jerusalem. Im- 
mense quantities of stone, brick, timber and other mate- 
rials were prepared for the important work. When every 
thing was in readiness, the workmen began to clear the 
ground, to dig up the earth, and to remove the old foun- 
dations. Jews of all ranks, young and old, women and 
children, shared in the labor, with so much eagerness, 
that some made use of silver pickaxes and spades in 
honor of the undertaking. St. Cyrill, bishop of Jerusa- 
lem, beheld these mighty preparations without anxiety. 
Full of confidence in the divine predictions, he said that 
the Jews, far from being able to rebuild their temple, 
would, on the contrary, fully verify the prophecy of 
Christ, by entirely removing the former foundations which 
still subsisted, and thus be instrumental in the fulfilment 

* In St. Matth. xxiv, 2. f Dan. ix, 27. 



148 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part II. 



of what our Savior had foretold, that of all this splendid 
Temple there should not be left a stone upon a stone. 

The trenches were now open, the new foundations were 
ready to be laid next morning, and the Jews already be- 
gan to triumph; when, during the night, a sudden earth- 
quake destroyed the trenches, overturned the adjacent 
buildings, and buried many workmen under the ruins. 
At the same time, the prodigious heaps of lime, sand and 
other materials which had been prepared, were scattered 
by whirlwinds. This first obstacle astonished the Jews, 
but did not conquer their obstinacy; and they again set 
to work, under the direction of Alypius. At this moment, 
from the bowels of the earth, near the foundation, there 
burst forth a flaming torrent and balls of fire, which dis- 
lodged the stones, melted the iron instruments, burned or 
scorched the workmen, and afterwards, running through 
the place and amidst the multitude of spectators, con- 
sumed or suffocated the Jews, whom the avenging element 
singled out with a sort of instinct. This awful prodigy 
was often repeated, and what showed more and more 
visibly the supernatural intervention of the divine power, 
was that the fire reappeared whenever the work was re- 
sumed, and ceased only when the attempt was entirely 
given over. 

There is not in all history a fact more certain and in- 
contestable than this, as it happened, to use the words of 
an illustrious historian,* in the presence of the whole 
world, and was equally attested by Christians, Jews and 
Gentiles.t Many among the witnesses of this prodigious 
event, whether Jews or Heathens, confessed the divinity 
of Christ, and asked for baptism. The unhappy Julian, 
on the contrary, still continued blintl and hardened in 
the midst of so much light, and now directed his princi- 
pal thoughts to another object. 



* Lebeau. hist, du Bas. empire, ad ann. 363. vol. in, p. 264. 
fSoeNoteD. 



A. D. 361-363. 



JULIAN. 149 



He had been, all this while, making preparations for 
war, in order to aven<^e the many insults offered to the 
empire bj Sapor, its inveterate enemy. This Sapor is 
famous among the Persian kings, for his warlike disposi- 
tion, violence and cruelties, during a reign of seventy 
years. He had lately overrun that part of Mesopotamia 
which belonged to the Romans, and destroyed the im- 
portant city of Amide. Julian resolved, not only to 
drive him from his frontiers, but also to subdue the whole 
Persian monarchy, and then, like Alexander the Great, 
to proceed to the conquest of India. 

With this view, he crossed the Euphrates at the head 
of sixty-five thousand men, and marched through Carrae 
in Mesopotamia, a spot rendered famous by the defeat of 
Crassus. He also visited the sepulchre of Gordian III, 
who had been murdered at the end of a glorious expedi- 
tion against the same Persians. Thence, the Romans fol- 
lowed the course of the river, taking by storm and firing 
such cities as offered any resistance. A numerous fleet, 
loaded with provisions, accompanied the army. 

At a short distance from the royal city of Ctesiphon, 
Julian discovered the vestiges of an ancient canal, which 
had been dug by the Babylonian kings, to unite the 
Euphrates and the Tigris, but which was now filled up, 
and could scarcely be distinguished from the other parts 
of the plain. The emperor caused it to be cleared, 
and the fleet following the current of the water, easily 
passed from the Euphrates into the Tigris. After a 
short stay, the whole army crossed the Tigris itself, in 
spite of the numerous bands of Persians, who, from the 
other side of the river, vigorously opposed the passage, 
but who, not being able to resist long the impetuous shock 
of the Roman legions, were completely routed. The suc- 
cess of the day was owing chiefly to the intrepidity, firm- 
ness and presence of mind of Julian. 

He did not however attempt to besiege Ctesiphon, for 
fear both of spending too much time in this undertaking, 
13* 



150 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part II. 



and of being himself shut up between that town and a 
formidable army conducted by Sapor, which was daily 
approaching. He then resolved to follow the Tigris, until 
he should reach the confines of Armenia; but a specious 
advice, given him by a Persian deserter whose fidelity he 
did not suspect, made him again alter his plan. Under 
the pretence that the fleet would be scarcely able, even 
with extraordinary exertions, to overcome the rapidity of 
the current, he gave orders, notwithstanding the objec- 
tion of the whole army, that the vessels should be set on 
fire, and then left the banks of the Tigris, the more 
quickly to penetrate into the heart of the enemy's country. 
Nay more, he carried his imprudence so far as to continue 
for several days in the way which his perfidious guide 
pointed out to him, even after the treason was detected. 
The army first advanced through a rich and fertile 
country, but soon found itself in the midst of vast plains 
where every thing had been purposely destroyed and 
burnt by the Persians. The troops of Sapor then ap- 
peared, and, thinking the occasion proper for battle, 
attacked the Romans. The latter indeed remained vic- 
torious, but they had now to struggle in their camp against 
much more dreadful enemies, namely, scarcity" of provi- 
sions and famine. The dangers of the march increased 
every day ; and, to complete their misfortune, they lost 
just at that time the man who alone could have saved 
them without dishonor, and have repaired his own im- 
prudence by the natural resources of his genius. In 
another battle, fought on the twenty-sixth of June (363), 
Julian, having exposed himself without a cuirass, had his 
liver pierced with a dart thrown by an unknown hand. 
He was carried back to his tent almost senseless, and, 
notwithstanding the cares of his physicians, expired the 
follov/ing night, at the age of thirty-one, after a reign of 
nearly two years. According to some, he died with 
great apparent composure and tranquillity; but others* 

* Theodoret, Sozomen, etc. 



A. D. 363—364. 



JOVIAN, 151 



relate that, when he felt himself mortally wounded, he 
threw a handful of his blood towards heaven, uttering 
these blasphemous words against Christ: *' Thou hast 
conquered, O Galilean;" and that he likewise upbraided 
his own gods, charging them with ingratitude in his 
regard. 

It would be impossible to give a precise outline of 
Julian's character. It was a most singular compound of 
good and bad qualities, moderation and malice, love of 
justice and blind hatred, prudence and temerity; he 
united a cultivated genius with a bigoted mind; he was a 
slave to vanity and credulity; superstitiously attached to 
the meanest, and perhaps also, to the most abominable 
practices of idolatry ; for we are told by some grave 
authors* that, besides an incredible multitude of animals, 
he likewise sacrificed human victims, for the purpose of 
discovering future events by an examination of their 
palpitating entrails. In a word, his defects were real, 
his virtues more apparent than sincere, his talents more 
brilliant than solid. 

The only genuine qualities perhaps that Julian possessed, 
were his intrepidity in war, and the talent he had to trans- 
form his soldiers into heroes. King Sapor did not cease 
to tremble for the safety of his crown, till he was in- 
formed of the emperor's death. He manifested the 
greatest joy, on receiving the glad tidings, and wished to 
reward the soldier by whom Julian had been wounded ; 
but no one presented himself to receive the recompense. 



JOVIAN.— A. D. 363—364. 

Most distressing was the situation in which the Ro- 
mans now found themselves, in the midst of an hostile 
country, without food and deprived of their leader. The 
chief officers assembled to appoint a successor to Julian, 

* Especially Theodoret, Hist. Eccl. lib. in, c. 21. 



152 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part II. 



and, upon the refusal of Sallust, prefect of the East, 
Jovian, one of the commanders in the imperial guard, 
was proclaimed emperor. After a slow and painful 
march of several days, he concluded with the Persians a 
treaty of peace, a step deemed necessary to save the 
army from starvation, but disgraceful to the empire, 
which lost, by this means, five provinces and the best 
towns of Mesopotamia. Such was the result of Julian's 
imprudence and temerity. 

Although the Romans, in their retreat, were no longer 
interrupted by the enemy, still they encountered many 
dangers, especially when they undertook to recross the 
Tigris, and their march continued difficult and harassing, 
until they reached their own territory. Jovian, on his 
arrival at Antioch, immediately turned his attention to 
the government of the state, and the restoration of peace 
to the church. He had, even during the storms of the 
two preceding reigns, preserved his faith, and anxious to 
maintain it in others, he carefully applied to heal the 
wounds inflicted by Julian on Christianity in general, 
and by Constantius on the Catholics. His excellent in- 
tentions and many good qualities, though less dazzling 
than those of Julian, promised a prosperous reign; but, 
having set out from Antioch in the dead of winter, he 
was found lifeless in his room on the seventeenth of Feb- 
ruary (364), before he could reach Constantinople. The 
cause of his death was never ascertained ; but the most 
common opinion is that he inhaled the fumes of charcoal. 
Jovian had lived thirty-three years, and reigned eight 
months. 



VALENTINIAN AND VALENS.— a. d. 364—378. 

The army set about a new election, and proclaimed 
Valentinian, an officer of distinguished merit. His noble 
size and features, gave him a warlike and majestic ap- 
pearance; he was renowned for prudence, valor, learning, 



A. D. 364—378. 



VALENTINIAN AND VALENS. 153 



sincere attachment to religion and great love of justice. 
Pure in his morals, grave in his deportment, he spoke 
little, but always with great judgment and natural elo- 
quence. Unhappily, these truly valuable qualities of 
body and mind were tarnished in him by some notable 
defects, such as violence of temper and excessive seve- 
rity, whence finally arose the painful accident which ter- 
minated his life. 

Valentinian had no sooner assumed the purple, than he 
associated to himself his brother Valens in the govern- 
ment of the empire. Still, before publicly declaring his 
intentions, he consulted his chief officers on the subject. 
All remained silent, except one, who was generous enough 
to say : *' Prince, if you love your family, you may choose 
your brother; if you love the state, select the fittest man 
for so great a dignity." This advice struck the emperor ; 
however, he persisted in his design, and declared Valens 
his colleague. He allotted to him the provinces of Asia, 
with Egypt and Thrace, and kept for himself the other 
provinces situated in Africa and Europe. 

Valentinian governed his portion of the empire with 
vigor and firmness. Making his residence, sometimes in 
Milan, sometimes in Triers, Paris or Rheims, he was 
always ready to defend the frontiers, and to repel the 
attacks of the barbarians posted beyond the Rhine and 
the Danube. He kept in constant awe the restless tribes 
of Germany, and triumphed over them in every battle. 

But, whilst his bravery and military science struck 
terror into the minds of the barbarians, his irascible 
humor was almost equally dreaded by his own subjects, 
till in the end it proved fatal to himself. The Quadi, a 
poor and timid nation, having incurred his displeasure, 
sent ambassadors to appease his anger by an humble 
apology. Valentinian was offended at the mean appear- 
ance of the ambassadors, and exclaimed that it was a 
shame for the empire and the emperor, that he had to 
treat with such ill-looking people. He spoke with such 



154 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part II. 



warmth and passion, that he broke a large blood-vessel, 
and fell senseless to the ground, his blood gushing forth 
abundantly from his mouth. A few hours after, he ex- 
pired in great pain, at the age of fifty-four, after a reign 
of nearly twelve years (a. d. 375), leaving his sceptre to 
his sons Gratian and Valentinian II. 

The East was still under the sway of his brother Va- 
lens, a prince of good morals and steadfast in his friend- 
ship ; but at the same time indolent, without genius and 
experience, often suffering his ministers to make a tyran- 
nical use of his authority. He showed no energy except 
in protecting the Arians and cruelly persecuting the 
Catholics ; the faith of the latter was defended by the 
illustrious doctors St. Gregory Nazianzen and his inti- 
mate friend St. Basil, archbishop of Caesarea, against 
whom all the emperor's efforts proved fruitless. 

With regard to military achievements, Valens, by the 
skill of his generals and the bravery of his troops, con- 
ducted, with considerable success, several campaigns 
against the Goths, the Persians, and the usurper Proco- 
pius, who, after many vicissitudes of fortune, was be- 
trayed by his own friends, delivered up to the emperor, 
and beheaded. But the last expedition of this prince 
had, through his own fault, a quite different result. Nu- 
merous bodies of Huns, a barbarous people from the 
north of Asia, were at that time driving before them all 
the tribes whom they met in their devastating course. 
Two hundred thousand Goths, finding themselves more 
and more harassed by those formidable enemies, asked 
and obtained of Valens leave to cross the Danube, and to 
settle in Thrace as subjects or allies. They were fol- 
lowed by other bodies of their countrymen whom it was 
not possible to keep afar off on the other side of the river; 
and the Roman officers stationed on that frontier were at 
the same time so imprudent and inhuman, as to exaspe- 
rate by ill-treatment that immense multitude dying with 
hunger and supplied with arms. They revolted against 



A. D. 379-395. THEODOSIUS THE GREAT. 155 

their oppressors, and, excited both by distress and the 
desire of revenge, began to overrun the country and put 
every thing to fire and sword. 

The generals of Valens endeavored, but too late, to 
stem this torrent. Several bloody battles were fought, 
but in vain ; and the emperor, not satisfied with the 
result, judged it necessary to repair in person to the 
field and put himself at the head of his troops. This 
step served only to increase the danger; for the com- 
mander of the Goths, Fritigern, was an able and expe- 
rienced general ; whilst Valens had neither ability nor 
prudence. Instead of waiting for the arrival of his 
nephew Gratian, who, after gaining a signal victory over 
the Germans, hastened to his assistance, the unwary 
prince, contrary to the advice of his best officers, marched 
with precipitancy and confusion against the enemy ; and, 
with troops harassed by fatigue, commenced near Adrian- 
ople a battle more disastrous, it is believed, than any 
that the Romans had ever fought from the time of their 
defeat at Cannee by Annibal. Here also they experienced 
a most signal overthrow, and lost nearly their whole 
army, with an incredible multitude of chief officers, and 
the emperor himself, whose body could never be found. 
According to common report, he was wounded, and in 
that state carried to a hut, which the Goths, not knowing 
who was in it, set on fire ; and Valens perished in the 
flames. He had reigned about fifteen, and lived nearly 
fifty years (a. d. 378). 



THEODOSIUS I. SURNAMED THE GREAT.— GRATIAN AND 
VALENTINIAN II.— 379— 395. 

The Roman empire had perhaps never been so much 
exposed to the danger of total ruin, as immediately after 
the battle of Adrianople. Though the Goths were un- 
successful in their attacks upon that and some other 
towns, they, together with the Huns and Alans, continued 



156 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part 11. 



with impunity, to plunder, slaughter and destroy in 
Thrace, Illyria and the neighboring provinces. The 
Suevi, Alemanni and Franks were at the same time pre- 
paring to invade Gaul, and the provinces of Asia were also 
threatened with new attacks from the Persians. Gratian, 
upon whom the whole burden of the government de- 
volved by the death of his uncle Valens, was fully aware 
that he could not by himself repel so many enemies, nor 
could he as yet derive any assistance from his brother 
Valentinian, a child seven or eight years of age. Stand- 
ing in need of more powerful succor, he was generous 
enough to declare his situation before all the world, and 
wise enough to choose as his associate the ablest man of 
the empire, viz : the great Theodosius, with whose name 
is associated the recollection of every civil, religious and 
military virtue. 

Theodosius was a native of Spain, and son of the cele- 
.brated Count Theodosius, who, after having, by his bril- 
liant campaigns under Valentinian I., saved Great Britain 
and Africa from powerful invaders, had lately perished 
on a scaffold at Carthage, the victim of an atrocious and 
artful calumny. Previously to this melancholy transac- 
tion, his son had on several occasions, displayed great 
military talents ; but, after the tragical death of his fa- 
ther, he led a retired life in his native country, until 
Gratian called him back to court, and offered him the 
purple, which he at first refused through sincere modesty, 
but afterwards accepted through a pure motive of obe- 
dience. It was agreed among them that he should rule 
over the East, Gratian reserving the West for himself 
and his young brother Valentinian. 

The accession of Theodosius almost instantaneously 
changed tlie desperate state of affairs, and gave a salutary 
check to the inroads of the barbarians. The Goths were 
the first who experienced the effects of his indignation 
and invincible bravery. He obliged them either to sur- 
render, or to retire beyond the Danube. The Huns and 



A. D. :j79-395. theodosius the great. 157 

the Alans were soon compelled to do the same ; the Per- 
sians, informed of his rapid exploits, sued for peace ; and, 
in a few years, the name of Theodosius was respected 
throughout the world. 

He availed himself of the tranquillity which followed 
his victories, to enact several admirable laws conducive 
alike to the prosperity of the state at large, to the re- 
pression of vice and the advancement of good morals 
among private individuals, to the security of life and 
property, etc. All his legislation breathes, as it were, an 
ardent love of the public good, of justice and religion, 
happily blended with a dignified clemency towards those 
who might possibly offer him personal insults, by out- 
rageous language against his person, conduct and govern- 
ment. *' If such persons," said he in one of his rescripts, 
"act and speak thus through levity, we should disregard 
their fault; if their conduct proceeds from blindness and 
folly, we should pity them ; if from ill-will and malice, 
we should forgive them." His heart was so inclined to 
benevolence, that, once dismissing several prisoners, he 
exclaimed : ** that I could restore the dead to life!" 

Theodosius endeavored likewise during the whole 
course of his reign, to promote, by wise and prudent 
means, the advancement of true piety, and of the ortho- 
dox faith which he sincerely professed. Arianism, not 
being able to obtain the least favor from so religious a 
prince, rapidly dwindled into insignificance. The Ma- 
cedonian heresy against the divinity of the Holy Ghost, 
was solemnly condemned by the Second General Council, 
held under his patronage at Constantinople (a. d. 381). 
In fine, the pious efforts of the emperor gave the deadly 
blow to heathenism, and his zeal, equally mild and firm, 
judicious and constant, was not satisfied until the public 
worship of idols disappeared from his dominions. 

The example of Theodosius was in most respects faith- 
fully imitated by Gratian, the emperor of the West. 
This prince, although very young, would perhaps have 
14 



158 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part II. 



become equal to his virtuous colleague in glory and wis- 
dom, had it not been for a single defect, which being 
disregarded, tarnished the lustre of his excellent quali- 
ties, and brought upon him a terrible disaster. Being 
excessively fond of hunting, the natural consequence 
was that he paid little attention to the affairs of his court, 
where discontent began to prevail, at the sight of the 
honors and benefits conferred upon strangers. Maximus, 
one of the chief officers in Great Britain, caused himself 
to be proclaimed emperor by some of the soldiers ; nor 
did the defection confine itself to that island, but passing 
over to the continent, it spread among the legions of 
Gaul with such rapidity, that in a few weeks Gratian 
found himself abandoned by nearly all his troops. No 
other resource was now left him than a precipitate flight ; 
and even that proved insufficient to save him from the 
hands of his enemies : he was overtaken at Lyons, and 
cruelly murdered at the age of twenty-four, after a reign 
of eight years (a. d. 383). 

Maximus abstained for a time from pursuing his suc- 
cessful and ambitious career; fixing his residence in 
Triers, he contented himself with reigning over the 
provinces which Gratian had governed. Still, he was 
making slow but powerful preparations to oppress young 
Valentinian in Italy, as he had done his brother in Gaul ; 
but Valentinian having received timely warning of the 
designs of his enemy, fled in full speed to Thessalonica, 
persuaded that he would find a zealous protector in 
Theodosius. His hopes were not deceived : Theodosius 
received him with open arms, and marched with him, at 
the head of his army, against Maximus, who was coming 
forward to meet them, with more boldness than prudence. 
One single and short campaign terminated the contest. 
The numerous troops of the usurper were conquered in 
two battles, and he himself being taken prisoner in Aqui- 
leia, whither he had retired after the second engagement, 
was led to Theodosius, with his hands tied behind him. 



A. D. 379—395, 



THEODOSIUS THE GREAT. 159 



At the sight of his cuptive, the generous conqueror felt 
inclined to compassion and forgiveness; but his officers, 
less indulgent, led Maximus awaj, and immediately be- 
headed him. No search was made after his partisans, 
and Theodosius added to the dominions of Valentinian 
those of his brother Gratian (a. d. 388). 

About the same time, he gave to all future generations 
a most admirable example of clemency. A great sedi- 
tion having burst forth in Antioch, the people carried 
their insolence so far as to break to pieces the statues of 
the emperor and of his family. Theodosius, justly irri- 
tated against an ungrateful city on which he had bestowed 
many signal favors, sent two commissaries, with orders 
to punish the leaders of the seditious riot, to deprive 
Antioch of its privileges, and to degrade that proud 
Capital of Syria to the low rank of a simple borough. 

The arrival of the two commissaries spread terror 
through the town. The most guilty of the inhabitants 
were arrested, and put in confinement; however, the sor- 
rowful multitude, together with the clergy, obtained by 
their supplications and tears, that the punishment should 
be postponed. The venerable bishop Flavian had already 
set out for Constantinople, in order to allay, if possible, 
the indignation of Theodosius. The first time he was 
introduced before him, he remained at some distance, 
with his eyes cast down, and observing a mournful si- 
lence. The emperor, whose heart was not less afilicted, 
approached the bishop, and with strong but tender re- 
proaches, expatiated on the ingratitude of his country- 
men. Flavian, being then emboldened to speak, acknow- 
ledged both the enormity of the crime and the justice of 
any punishment that might be inflicted on its authors ; 
but he afterwards so eloquently described and extolled 
the advantages of the forgiveness of injuries, that the 
emperor, unable any longer to restrain his tears, cried 
out that he willingly pardoned Antioch, after the exam- 
ple of Christ who had forgiven his very executioners. 



160 MODERN HISTORY. Pan n. 

The pardon was entire, unreserved, and did honor to the 
clemency of Theodosius. 

Three years after, on a similar occasion, he appeared 
to forget his own principles. The populace of Thessa- 
lonica, in a tumultuous insurrection, stoned their gover- 
nor to death. Theodosius, who then resided at Milan, 
was so indignant at this outrage, that he issued a commis- 
sion or warrant for the soldiery to be let loose on the 
inhabitants of Thessalonica during three hours ; the com- 
mission was executed with such fury, that seven thousand 
persons were put to the sword. No sooner was the holy 
archbishop of Milan, St. Ambrose, informed of the awful 
deed, than he declared to the emperor that he could not 
admit him into the church, nor to the participation of the 
sacred mysteries, until he had atoned, by an exemplary 
penance, for the enormity of the massacre lately com- 
mitted. Theodosius humbly submitted to the decision of 
the holy prelate, and remained thus excluded from the 
church, for eight months, at the end of which time St. 
Ambrose, moved by his tears and lively repentance, 
again admitted him, on condition, however, that he would 
ever after, in order to avoid similar faults, postpone for 
thirty days the execution even of just sentences of death. 
Theodosius willingly yielded to the proposal, and, by 
this docility, left it uncertain which is more worthy of 
admiration, the firmness of the archbishop or the piety of 
the emperor. 

This prince was scarcely returned to Constantinople, 
when a fresh and disastrous revolution, caused by the mur- 
der of Valentinian II, obliged him to make a new expedi- 
tion into the West. That young emperor, trained up to vir- 
tue by the instructions and examples of Theodosius, knew 
already how to conduct himself with great wisdom, and 
gave every day greater hopes of a fortunate and glorious 
reign. Being told that some suspicions, though ill founded, 
were entertained concerning his morals, he dismissed 
without delay the persons whose society might become 



A. D. 379—395. 



THEODOSTUS THE GREAT. 161 



dangerous for his virtue. He overcame his excessive 
relish for the games and shows of the circus, bj abolishing 
the games, and causing the beasts destined for them or 
for the chase, to be killed on the same day. Although he 
had found the treasury exhausted, no solicitation of his 
courtiers could ever induce him to augment the taxes. 
His conduct obtained respect even from the barbarians, 
and he was endeavoring by every means in his power to 
procure abundance and tranquillity to his subjects, when 
a cruel plot contrived by Arbogastes, the general of his 
troops, deprived him of the empire and of life, at the age 
of twenty, after a reign of nine years since the death of 
Gratian (a. d. 392). 

Intense was the affliction of Theodosius, when he 
learned the melancholy fate of this excellent prince, his 
brother-in-law, his partner in the empire, and his sincere 
friend. Justice, humanity and conscience obliging him to 
avenge his death and punish the murderers, he spent two 
years in making adequate preparations for this new ex- 
pedition, which he justly supposed would be difficult and 
bloody ; for x\rbogastes had a great reputation for skill in 
war, and a strong party on his side. Still, being of bar- 
barian extraction, he did not dare assume the imperial 
sceptre himself, but placed it in the hands of a certain 
Eugenius, a proud, ambitious man, who had been a secre- 
tary of the late emperor, and had taken part in his 
assassination. 

The two armies advanced against each other, the one 
from Gaul, under the command of the two usurpers, who 
had the images of the false gods carried before them ; the 
other from Thrace, under the banner of the cross, and 
commanded by Theodosius in person. They met in the 
northeast of Italy, at the distance of about thirty miles 
from Aquileia. Here a general engagement took place, 
which the importance of the cause, the number and dis- 
cipline of the troops, the heroic intrepidity of Theodo- 
sius, and the desperate courage of Arbogastes, rendered 
14* 



162 MODERN HISTORY 



Part II. 



extremely furious and obstinate. It lasted two days, the 
first of which, without giving to either party any decisive 
loss or advantage, beheld a tremendous havoc of the 
bravest troops of Theodosius. The pious emperor spent 
the following night in prayer, placing his confidence in 
God whose cause he supported, more than in all the ex- 
ertions of his ability and valor. At the dawn of day, he 
again drew up his army, and, taking his shield and cui- 
rass, marched out with ardor against the enemy. 

This was the moment which heaven had chosen, in 
order to declare visibly in his favor. On a sudden, fright- 
ful whirlwinds arose, which directed all their violence 
against the rebels, broke their ranks, and forced their 
shields from their hands. Their arrows turned against 
themselves, whilst those of their opponents received addi- 
tional force from the wind.* Thus exposed, blinded by 
the dust, and overpowered by the storm, they either fell 
on the field of battle, or threw themselves, in their flight, 
into a neighboring river. Arbogastes, seeing that all was 
lost, stabbed himself, and died in rage and despair. Euge- 
nius was brought in chains by his own soldiers before 
Theodosius, who justly condemned him to death ; but the 
generous conqueror pardoned all the others of their party. 
The slaughter ceased, and the two armies mingled to- 
gether, exulting with joy, one for its victory, the other for 
its defeat, and both looking on their pious emperor as 
really invincible. 

* See Socrates, Eccles. Hist. lib. V, c. 25 ; — Sozomen, lib. VII, c. 24 ; — 
Orosius, lib. VII, c. 3 ; — Theodoret, lib. v. c. 24 ; St. Augustine (who 
had learned the fact in question from the very soldiers ofEugenius,that 
had been present at the battle), De Civitate Dei, lib. V, c. 26 ; — in fine, 
the heathen poet Claudian, who describes the same thus, in his poem 
on the third consulship of the young emperor Honorius: 

Te propter, gelidis aquilo de monte procellis 
Obruit adversas acies, revolutaque tela 
Vertit in auctores, et turbine reppulit hastas. 
O niraium dilecte Deo, cui fundit ab antris 
^olus armatas hiemes ; cui militat aether, 
Et conjurati veniunt ad classica venti ! 



D. 379—395. 



THEODOSIUS THE GREAT. 163 



This memorable battle, which was fought on the sixth 
of September, 394, subjected all the west to Theodosius. 
He lived but a short time after his glorious triumph over 
all his enemies. Continual labors and hardships, espe- 
cially at the head of armies, had exhausted his constitu- 
tion, and, after lingering for some weeks, he died in the 
middle of the following January (a. d. 395), at the age of 
fifty, after a reign of sixteen years. This was the last 
reign which saw all the parts of the Roman empire united 
under the sway of the same sovereign. At the solemn 
service performed, according to custom, for his departed 
soul, St. Ambrose delivered the funeral oration in pre- 
sence of the whole army ; after which, his body was 
transferred to Constantinople, and deposited in the Mauso- 
leum of the great Constantine, with whom he shares in the 
just praises and admiration of posterity. 

In fact, every public achievement of this emperor would 
suffice to illustrate a long reign. He restored the majesty 
of the empire, made the people under him constantly 
happy, and conquered all his enemies, who were equally 
the enemies of the state. He subdued the Goths, drove back 
the Huns and Sarmatians, kept the Persians in constant 
awe, overcame two powerful usurpers, checked the Arian 
and Macedonian heresies, almost completed the destruc- 
tion of idolatry without shedding a drop of blood, and 
published a great number of laws so wise and excellent, 
as to place him far above the wisest legislators of anti- 
quity. Having nothing in view but the happiness of man- 
kind, he commanded, by a formal edict, that, on Easter- 
day, all persons detained in prison, whose dismission 
would not endanger the interest and good order of society, 
should be set at liberty ; and it was on this occasion that 
he added the memorable words already mentioned: '* O 
that I could even raise the dead to life !" 

In his countenance and all his deportment Theodosius 
was dignified, but at the same time, cheerful, mild, cour- 
teous and affable. He always kept himself free, not only 



164 MODERN HISTORY. Panii. 

from gross vices, but even from those which most easily 
find admission to the heart, such as ambition and vain 
glory; he never undertook any war, unless through ne- 
cessity; and, though eminently skilled and successful in 
the command of armies, always blamed the proud spirit 
of Marius, Sylla, and other conquerors, whom he sa.id it 
should be his constant endeavor to resemble as little as 
possible. His inclinations were naturally violent, but 
kept under restraint; or, if he committed any fault, con- 
trary to his usual clemency and weakness, he soon re- 
paired it in a manner which did honor to his character. 
Hence the Holy Fathers, ecclesiastical authors and coun- 
cils are unanimous in proposing Theodosius as a model for 
Christian princes. Pagan writers themselves, with the 
exception of the furious Zozimus, agree in praising his 
extraordinary merit and qualifications. Aurelius Victor, 
in particular, does not hesitate to represent him as an ac- 
complished hero, far superior to Trajan, whose eminent 
qualities he possessed without any of his vices. The same 
historian adds that the virtue of Theodosius continually 
increased with his prosperity and victories ; a praise 
which, to every reflecting mind, must appear the most 
honorable encomium. 



HONORIUS AND ARCADIUS.— a. d. 395—423. 

From the death of Theodosius must be dated the final 
decline of the empire. He had maintained it in its for- 
mer greatness ; he left it in all its glory to his sons Hono- 
rius and Arcadius ; but he could not transmit to these 
young princes his consummate prudence, valor and ability. 
Their pusillanimous disposition and want of energy left 
them almost constantly exposed to the insults of barba- 
rians and to the ambitious intrigues of their own ministers. 

Arcadius, the elder of the two, was emperor of the 



A. D. 395—423. 



ETC. 165 



East. His reign, which lasted thirteen years, offers 
nothing remarkable, except the ravages of the Huns in 
Thrace, and of the Isaurians in Lesser Asia ; the power, 
ambition and miserable death of Rufinus, Eutropius and 
Gai'nas, who successively supplanted each other at court ; 
and the unjust persecution carried on by jealous enemies 
against the illustrious St. John Chrysostom, archbishop 
of Constantinople, who died in exile (a. d. 407), after 
having filled the whole world with the fame of his golden 
eloquence. Arcadius died one year after him, and was 
succeeded by his son Theodosius the Younger. 

The reign of Honorius in the western part of the em- 
pire, was longer and still more disastrous than that of his 
brother Arcadius. Its various calamities originated chiefly 
in the vacillating conduct of his prime minister Stilico, 
who, having raised himself to that high station by im- 
portant services under Theodosius the Great, listened 
only to the suggestions of his unbounded ambition, de- 
fending or betraying the state, as best suited his own 
interest. At first, all things were prosperous under him ; 
he destroyed two numerous armies of Goths and other 
barbarians who had invaded Italy, one conducted by 
Alaric, whom he obliged to retreat beyond the Alps (402) ; 
the other commanded by Radagasius, who lost nearly all 
his troops and was himself slain near Florence (405). 

Soon after this defeat, other hordes of barbarians made 
a successful irruption into the empire, and crossing the 
Rhine (406), began to conquer the richest provinces, en- 
couraged, it is believed, by Stilico himself. The design 
of that ambitious man seems to have been to throw insu- 
perable difficulties in the way of Honorius, in order to 
undermine his power, if he would not consent to resign 
his crown. To convince Honorius of the plot contrived 
hy his minister, was no easy task ; at length, he opened his 
eyes, and was so readily seconded by the troops, that the 
traitor and all his partisans suffered capital punishment, 
most of them however without the orders of the emperor, 



166 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part ir. 



who enaeavored, but in vain, to check the fury of the 
soldiery. 

The detection of the intrigues of Stilico did not stop 
the progress of the barbarians. Whilst the Alemanni on 
the one side, and the Burgundians on the other, occupied 
the territories along the Rhine, the Suevi, Alans and 
Vandals proceeded farther, and during three successive 
years plundered the different provinces of Gaul, which 
they laid in ruins and ashes. After this (409), they 
passed over to Spain, where they settled, the Suevi in the 
north, the Alans in the west, and the Vandals in the south, 
the eastern part only being left to the Romans. 

But the most formidable of all the enemies of Rome 
was Alaric, the leader of the Goths. Driven away some 
years before, he re-entered Italy, with an ardent desire 
of avenging his defeat. Honorius and his court, whose 
residence was then at Ravenna near the Adriatic sea, op- 
posed to him only protracted negotiations and ineifectual 
promises, a mode of defence more calculated to inflame 
the indignation than to check the progress of the warlike 
chieftain. Rome was besieged, and after enduring the 
horrors of a cruel famine, was taken by surprise and 
treason during the night. The conqueror gave it up to 
be plundered by his soldiers, who accordingly spreading 
themselves through every quarter of the city, soon pro- 
duced a scene of general desolation; many buildings were 
fired, and a furious tempest served at the same time, to 
increase the devastation spread by the barbarians (410). 

Thus did Rome lose, in the space of a few hours, that 
power, splendor and magnificence which had made it, for 
so many ages, the first city of the world. Numbers of its 
inhabitants fled in all directions, even to the most distant 
provinces, carrying every where the news of the great 
catastrophe of which they were the victims. This event 
was, even in countries the most remote, a subject of deep 
grief; and the sight of so many illustrious families now- 
reduced to the utmost distress, excited universal com- 



A. D. 395—423. 



ETC. 167 



miseration, as St. Augustine and St. Jerome relate.* Still 
Rome, not having been totally destroyed, continued to 
subsist, and even repaired in a great measure its losses ; 
but being once debased by the Goths, it became a sort of 
by- word among other barbarians, and its majesty as Capi- 
tal of the Roman empire, had departed for ever. 

Alaric did not think proper to retain liis conquest, but 
setting out after a few days pursued his march without 
obstacle towards the southern extremity of Italy. His in- 
tention was, to pass over the strait into Sicily, and thence 
to Africa, where he thought he could obtain a more desir- 
able and permanent settlement; but a violent storm coun- 
teracted his measures, and death put an end to all his 
designs. He was carried off by a violent disease, and left 
the conduct of the Goths to Ataulphus, his brother-in- 
law, and the faithful companion of his victorious cam- 
paigns. His followers regretted him as the hero of their 
nation, and thechief author of the great powerand influence 
which they had acquired in western Europe. According 
to the custom of northern barbarians, of concealing the 
sepulchres of extraordinary men, they changed for a while 
the course of a small river near Cozenza, and having dug 
a deep grave in the bed of the channel, deposited there the 
body of Alaric with many valuable objects, and after- 
wards made the waters resume their former course. 

The Goths now returned to the north of Italy, and ad- 
vanced into Gaul, where they had to encounter many 
obstacles in their endeavors to effect a settlement. At 
length, they were permitted by the Romans, under certain 
conditions, to occupy the provinces contiguous to the 
Pyrenees. For this advantageous treaty the Gothic na- 



* St. Au2:ust. De Civ. Dei. lib. T, c. 3.3 ;— St. Jer. Epist. ad Principi- 
am, et lib. Ill, in Ezech. — They themselves were visited by several of 
the noble fugitives, and showed, by their conduct on this occasion, that 
the charity of their hearts was not less than the genius and learning 
which have raised them to the first rank among'the Doctors of the 
church. 



168 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part 11. 



tion was indebted chiefly to the abilities of king Vallia, 
the third successor of Alaric. 

About this time also, the Romans began to lose their 
influence in Great Britain. Honorius having recalled 
from that distant province its legionary troops whose 
presence was necessary to repel dangers nearer home, the 
whole country remained exposed to the inroads of the 
Picts and Scots, two tribes inhabiting the north of the 
island. Some troops, it is true, were again sent to assist 
the Britons and drive back their foes; but, as these succors 
were granted only for a time, the restless Picts and Scots 
renewed their depredations with such success and perse- 
verance for nearly forty years, as to render the country, 
during that time, as miserable as it had been prosperous 
under the Romans. 

To the close of the career of Honorius many writers 
trace back the beginning of the French monarchy. Ac- 
cording to them, the Franks, a powerful German tribe, 
crossed the Rhine in the year 420 with Pharamond their 
kino-j and wrested the north of Gaul from the Romans. 
But others believe that their first real settlement upon the 
Roman territories must be referred only to the year 438 
or 440, during the reign of King Clodio. Be this as it 
may, it is certain that in general the aiFairs of the em- 
pire, during the latter part of the reign of Honorius, wore 
a more favorable appearance. Several provinces were 
delivered from the yoke of usurpation and tyranny, and a 
successful check was given for a time to the progress of 
the barbarians. The principal author of these happy 
changes was Constaritius, a man of uncommon ability and 
virtue, which he displayed during ten years, by the pru- 
dence with which he directed political operations, and by 
the glory which he acquired in commanding the armies. 
As a reward for so many services, Honorius, besides giv- 
ing him his sister Placidia in marriage, conferred on him 
the title of Augustus, a title which he did not enjoy more 
than seven months : he received it in February, and died 



A. D. 424-455. VALENTINIAN III, ETC. 169 

in the following September (a. d. 421). Not long after 
(423), Honorius himself died at the age of thirty-nine, 
after a reign of twenty-eight years ; a prince, not alto- 
gether unworthy of esteem, if we consider his beneficent 
intentions and private virtues, but certainly unfit, from 
his want of resolution and capacity, to govern the state, 
especially in the calamitous and disorderly times in which 
he lived. 



VALENTINIAN III, IN THE WEST ;— IN THE EAST, THEO- 
DOSIUS II, OR THE YOUNGER.— a. d. 424—455. 

The late emperor having left no children, his crown 
was, with some difficulty, transferred to young Valen- 
tinian, his nephew, the son of Placidia and Constantius. 
This young prince received from his mother a religious 
education, but profited so little by it, that he is more 
known in history for his effeminate and dissolute life, than 
for any active share that he took in the important trans- 
actions of his reign. 

Theodosius the Younger still reigned in the East, as he 
had done since the death of his father Arcadius. During 
his childhood, the state was governed first by the prefect 
Anthemius, a man truly deserving of his high office, which 
he held six years. This able minister repelled foreign 
invasions, fortified the frontiers, built new walls around 
Constantinople, and procured for the empire a profound 
peace. Afterwards, Theodosius being yet too young and 
inexperienced, the governing power was intrusted to his 
sister Pulcheria, who, though but sixteen years old, al- 
ready evinced extraordinary prudence and a vigor of 
mind equal to her piety. At home, she preserved good 
order and tranquillity, and at the same time caused the 
Roman name to be respected abroad. A new war having 
become necessary against the Persians, all its operations 
and various campaigns were so successfully conducted, 
15 



170 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part IJ. 



that king Varanes V. found himself obliged, after many 
defeats, to consent to a treaty of peace on the conditions 
dictated by the court of Constantinople. 

Unfortunately, Theodosius did not always act confor- 
mably to the views and counsels of his sister, having suf- 
fered his mind to be prepossessed against her by the 
intrigues of crafty and ambitious persons desirous to have 
a greater share in the government. From that time, the 
prosperity of the state rapidly declined. Many provinces 
were laid waste by the barbarians on different sides, and 
the honor of the empire was trampled under foot by At- 
tila, the fierce king of the Huns, who forced Theodosius 
to pay him an annual tribute equally onerous and dis- 
graceful. These evils originated in the weakness and 
indolence of the emperor himself, who, though he pos- 
sessed the qualifications of a good scholar, and most of the 
virtues that can be desired in a private man, knew neither 
how to govern and command, nor how to choose good 
ministers and generals. 

The West, from a variety of causes, continued still 
to be the theatre of more complicated and calamitous 
events. There existed, at this time, two men, who did 
equal honor and mischief to the state, viz., the general 
^^tius, and Count Boniface, governor of Africa. The 
former was justly renowned as a commander and a poli- 
tician, but so high-minded, that he could not brook the 
idea of any one being his equal in talents and glory. 
The latter, as brave and skilful perhaps as ^tius himself, 
surpassed him in moderation and disinterestedness; still 
he had not fortitude enough to submit patiently to great 
injustice. 

^tius, whose design was to ruin Boniface, secretly 
wrote to him under the mask of friendship, to let him 
know that he was in great danger, the empress Placidia 
being now so incensed against him, that, in case of his 
return to court, his death would inevitably follow. On 
the other hand, the artful impostor persuaded the empress 



A, D. 424-455. VALENTINIAN III, ETC. 171 

that Boniface sought to make himself independent in 
Africa, adding, with great protestations of zeal for her 
interest, that the only prudent course she could adopt was 
to recall him without delay, and, should he refuse to obey 
her order, to treat him as a rebel. 

Placidia, not suspecting any treachery, followed this 
advice without further inquiry. Boniface received a 
summons to leave Africa ; but as he himself entertained 
strong suspicions of the designs of the court, instead of 
obeying, he raised troops to oppose those sent against 
him, and thus, by the very means which he selected-to prove 
his innocence, became really guilty. Not long after, both 
he and Placidia discovered the imposture of J^tius, but 
its evil consequences were now irreparable. Boniface 
had already called to his aid and introduced into Africa 
the Vandals of Spain, whom he could not afterwards ex- 
pel when he returned to a sense of his duty. These bar- 
barians, having at their head Genseric, a warlike and 
sanguinary prince, overran the whole country with the 
rapidity of a torrent. Those rich and fertile provinces, 
whose inhabitants had provoked by their corruption and 
vices the wrath of God, were soon deluged with blood 
and reduced to ashes. The Vandals established in the 
midst of these ruins of the Roman power the seat of their 
own domination, which lasted one hundred and six years 
(from 428 to 534), when Africa was restored to the em- 
pire by the arms of Belisarius. 

In the meanwhile, the empress durst not punish the per- 
fidy of ^tius, who was more powerful than herself. All 
she could do against him was to bestow new dignities and 
all possible marks of distinction on Count Boniface with 
whom she was now perfectly reconciled. This was ad- 
ding fuel to the flame ; and, as iKtius considered the in- 
crease of authority in his rival as derogatory to his own, 
the two generals took the field in support of their respec- 
tive pretensions. In the battle which ensued, Boniface 
was victorious; but his success cost him his life; he 



172 MODERN HISTORY. Pa,tii. 

received a dangerous wound of which he died at the 
expiration of three months (432). 

No longer seeing a rival in his way, iEtius thought of 
repairing, by glorious services, the disasters which his 
jealousy had brought upon the state. He, from that time, 
showed himself an insuperable barrier against all the at- 
tacks of foreign enemies, defeated the Goths in the south 
of Gaul, the Franks in the north, and other barbarians 
near the frontiers of Germany and Italy. Shortly after 
these achievements, a new and most furious storm arose 
from the East, which engaged all his attention and re- 
quired all the exertions of his courage. 

Attila, king of the Huns, and leader of an immense 
multitude of barbarians gathered from the north of Asia 
and Europe, intended to ransom and plunder the west- 
ern, as he had done the eastern provinces of the empire. 
He advanced towards Gaul with an army of five hundred, 
or, according to some authors, of seven hundred thousand 
men, leaving every where such dreadful marks of his 
passage, that he was justly called, and called himself 
ihe Scourge of God. His very countenance was terrific: 
he had an enormous head, small and bright eyes, a flat 
nose, a swarthy complexion, and appeared, in all his de- 
portment, haughty, fierce and threatening. 

In the year 451, this terrible conqueror crossed the 
Rhine, and penetrated into the heart of Gaul, burning or 
sacking all the towns in his way. At last, he was stopped 
before the walls of Orleans by a vigorous and lasting re- 
sistance. In the meanwhile, J^tius, who had induced 
the Visigoths and the Franks to unite with him against 
the common enemy, was hastening to the relief of the 
town. He arrived just in time to save it from destruc- 
tion. The Huns, having broken the gates, were beginning 
to enter iind plunder the city, when ^tius coming from 
the opposite direction, suddenly appeared, with his army, 
and immediately charged the barbarians. Their surprise 
and terror were equal to the suddenness and violence of 



A. D. 424—455. 



ETC. 173 



the attack. Those who had already lost themselves in the 
streets, were slain, or compelled to fly, whilst Attila, 
foaming with rage, endeavored to rally the fugitives without 
the city. He then began to retreat towards the Rhine ; 
^tius closely followed him at the head of his troops 
and allies, and overtook him in the vast plains of Chalons 
in Champaigne. 

Europe had never beheld two armies so numerous as 
these in presence of one another ; the army of iEtius, it 
is said, was almost equal to that of Attila. The whole 
plain, as far as the eye could reach, being filled with a 
countless multitude of battalions bristling with iron and 
brass, exhibited for some moments a most imposing spec- 
tacle, which was soon changed into a frightful scene by 
the fury of the combatants. The king of the Huns ani- 
mated his troops by word and example; ^itius displayed 
that consummate skill and intrepidity, for which he has 
been surnamed the last of the Romans. Like him, his 
soldiers fought with wonderful courage; still, it appears 
that the Visigoths won, on that famous day, the prize of 
valor, and had the principal share in the victory. After 
having broken and routed the enemy's left wing, they fell 
with such irresistible fury upon the centre of the Huns, 
that Attila himself was in great danger. Frightened, for 
the first time in his life, he abandoned to the Romans and 
their allies the field of battle strewed with one hundred 
and eighty thousand, some say, nearly three hundred 
thousand dead bodies. Horrible indeed must the slaughter 
have been, since, according to the common report of his- 
torians, a little neighboring stream was swelled like a 
torrent, by the quantity of blood which flowed into its 
channel. 

The battle having finished only at dusk, the confede- 
rates were not certain of their advantage till the day fol- 
lowing. The joy of the victory which they had gained 
was damped by the consideration of their own loss, and 
particularly by the death of king Theodoric, who had 
15* 



174 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part II. 



been killed whilst bravely fighting at the head of his 
Visigoths. His body was found among heaps of the 
slain, and buried with great honors on the field of battle. 
Then ^tius dismissed his allies, in the just hope that 
the Roman militia would now be sufficient to drive the 
enemy from Gaul; nor was he disappointed: Attila, 
though still proud and eager for revenge, removed his 
camp, and retired beyond the Rhine. 

No later than the ensuing year (452), this undaunted 
conqueror reappeared, and revenged himself for the tre- 
mendous blow he had received in Gaul, by plundering 
and laying waste the northern part of Italy. He first 
laid siege to the important and well fortified city of Aqui- 
leia. This celebrated town had, fifty-two years before, 
repelled the combined efforts of Radagasius and Alaric, 
and now equally resisted for three months all the attacks 
of Attila. The Huns were dispirited, and their leader 
himself began to think of abandoning the siege, when he 
perceived storks flying with their little ones from the 
town into the country. Struck at the circumstance, and 
skilfully turning it to his advantage, he told his soldiers 
that, without doubt, the precipitate retreat of those birds 
from Aquileia was an omen of the city's impending ruin. 
This was enough to revive the courage of the Huns; they 
renewed the attack with fresh ardor, battered the walls 
with all their machines, and having made a large breach, 
rushed into the place with a fury proportioned to the re- 
sistance which they had experienced. The garrison and 
inhabitants were either put to the sword or reduced to 
slavery, and the town was consigned to the flames. 

This conquest enabled the Huns to advance without 
further obstacle, ^^tius, whose forces were now quite 
inferior to theirs, did not dare oppose the march of the 
main body of their troops, but contented himself with 
cutting in pieces the scouts and exploring detachments. 
Pouring into the fertile plains of Italy, they destroyed 
all before them with fire and sword, sacked Milan, 



A. D. 424—455. 



VALENTINIAN III, ETC. 175 



destroyed Padua with many other cities, and depopu- 
lated entire provinces. The whole country on the left 
side of the river Po was one continued scene of car- 
nage and devastation. Such of the inhabitants as had 
time to avoid this destructive storm, retired into the 
small islands at the extremity of the Adriatic Gulf, 
where they laid the foundation of the noble city and re- 
public of Venice. The weak emperor Valentinian was 
on the point of abandoning Italy, and the Romans, in 
the utmost terror, expected soon to see the barbarians 
before their gates. 

In this general consternation. Pope St. Leo, at the re- 
quest of the emperor and of the whole city of Rome, 
went to meet Attila, in hopes of mollifying his rage, and 
preventing his further progress. Avienus, a man of 
consular dignity, and Trigetius, who had been prefect of 
Rome, were deputed to accompany him in this embassy. 
They found the haughty monarch at Ambuleium near 
Mantua. Contrary to the general expectation, he re- 
ceived the Pope with great honor, and gave him a favora- 
ble audience. St. Leo, on his part, addressed the barba- 
rian with so much energy, eloquence and dignity, that he 
gained the admiration of all, and especially of Attila, 
who, on his proposal, concluded a treaty of peace with 
the empire, on the condition of an annual tribute. The 
king immediately commanded his army to cease hostili- 
ties, and soon after recrossed the Alps, to retire into his 
own dominions near the Danube. But, on his way home, 
he was seized with a violent vomiting of blood, of which 
he died in 453. The Huns, buried him with the same 
honors and precautions, with which the Goths had buried 
their King Alaric forty-three years before. As to the 
vast empire which that extraordinary man had founded, it 
disappeared with him, in consequence of the civil wars 
that broke out among his children and vassals. 

^tius did not outlive him more than one year, being 
destroyed by an intrigue similar to that which he himself 



176 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part II. 



had formerly used against Count Boniface. A charge of 
conspiracy having been secretly brought against him at 
court, he was summoned to the palace. He obeyed, and 
on his arrival, the emperor slew him with a sword. By 
this crime, the blind and wretched Valentinian de- 
prived his person and crown of the only defender whom 
he might successfully oppose to his numerous enemies. 
This truth one of his attendants gave him to understand, 
when, being asked what he thought of the death of iEtius, 
he answered that the emperor had cut off his own right 
hand with the left. A few months after, Valentinian 
was murdered in the midst of Rome by some discon- 
tented officers, the chief of whom was a certain Maxi- 
mus, who immediately seized upon the imperial throne. 
That unhappy prince had lived thirty-six, and reigned 
about thirty years, if he may be said to have reigned, 
who was almost constantly a slave to the interested will 
of others as well as to his own passions, which he never 
controlled. 

Notwithstanding his vices and the faults of his govern- 
ment, Valentinian was bitterly regretted by some persons. 
His widow, Eudoxia, carried her resentment against the 
murderers so far, as to call the Vandals from Africa to 
avenge his death. No proposal could be more pleasing to 
that nation always eager for pillage; they hastened to 
cross the sea with a numerous fleet, and going up the 
Tiber, entered Rome before the close of the same year 
455. At this time, St. Leo was not able to avert the 
storm, but he succeeded at least in obtaining from Gen- 
seric, though an Arian and a violent persecutor of the 
Catholics in his own kingdom, that the buildings of the 
city and the lives of the inhabitants should be spared. 
Accordingly, the Vandals contented themselves with 
taking a certain number of prisoners together with the 
riches of Rome, and returned to Carthage loaded with 
booty. 



A. D. 455-476. 



ETC. 17' 



MARCIAN.— LEO THE THRACIAN, IN THE EAST. 

LAST PERIOD AND FALL OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE. i55 — 476. 

Theodosius II. died in the year 450, of a fall from his 
horse, at the age of fifty, after a reign of forty-two years. 
No one was better qualified to succeed him than his sister 
Pulcheria ; still, as no woman had ever reigned alone in 
either empire, she married and proclaimed emperor 
Marcian, a brave and virtuous officer, who, by his merit, 
had raised himself from the condition of a common sol- 
dier to a conspicuous rank in both the army and the 
state. 

No sooner was he acknowledged emperor, than he be- 
gan to bring back the empire from that ignominy and 
dejection to which it had been reduced by the barbarians. 
When Attila, before setting out for his expedition into 
Gaul, sent to the court of Constantinople to receive the 
payment of the annual tribute stipulated by Theodosius 
II., Marcian answered the deputies that, reserving gold 
for his friends, he had nothing but iron and steel for his 
enemies. Towards his subjects he behaved as a true 
father. Being surrounded by excellent counsellors of 
his own choice, he devoted with them all his care to re- 
store security and abundance, procure the exact adminis- 
tration of justice, remove unv/orthy men from public 
employments, diminish the taxes, check the course of 
public and private calamities, relieve the poor and dis- 
tressed, in a word, to bestow benefits on all, as far as 
prudence and the state of the exchequer permitted. 

The object that chiefly engaged Marcian's attention 
was the cause of the true faith, which demanded his co- 
operation against various enemies in the East. Of late, 
a succession of violent storms had been raised against it 
by two opposite heresies, the Nestorian, which denied 
the unity of person in Christ, and the Eutychian, which 
attacked the distinction of his two natures. The former 



178 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part II. 



of these errors, which both strike at the mystery of the 
Incarnation, had been already condemned by the General 
Council of Ephesus, held in 431; against the latter, the 
Council of Chalcedon, the fourth of the General Coun- 
cils, was, by the authority of Pope St. Leo, and through 
the care of Marcian, assembled in 451. Besides renew- 
ing the condemnation of the Nestorian, it solemnly pro- 
scribed the Eutychian doctrines; and such of the abettors 
of either, as refused to submit, were considered as no 
longer belonging to the church of Christ; they formed 
separate societies still extant in Asia. 

Marcian was not less distinguished for his domestic 
virtues than for his public conduct. Nothing appeared 
in him but sincere piety and modesty, beneficence, disin- 
terestedness, and admirable purity of life. His reign, 
deservedly, called the golden age of the eastern empire, 
was, if not the most conspicuous in every respect, at 
least the most fortunate and irreprehensible. Unfortu- 
nately, it did not last more than six years and five 
months; this excellent emperof died in January 457, at 
the age of sixty-five. 

Leo, the Thracian, who succeeded him, and reigned 
about seventeen years, also shewed great zeal for reli- 
gion. He was well fitted for the sovereign power, though 
not so talented or successful as his predecessor. A pow- 
erful fleet which he sent against Genseric, was entirely 
defeated; but he gained signal victories over the barba- 
rians of the north, and, in general, maintained his domin- 
ions in that state of respectability in which they had 
been left by Marcian. He died in the year 474, and 
Genseric, that terrible conqueror whom we have often 
mentioned, followed him to the grave three years later, 
after having, during half a century, inflicted on the Ro- 
mans, in every part of their dominions, all the injury in 
his power. 

The western empire was now in the last stage of its 
existence. After the death of Valentinian III, and of the 



A. D. 455-4-6. MARCIAN, ETC. 179 

usurper Maximus (455), Avitus, a senator of great re- 
pute, was acknowledged emperor in their place : still, the 
greater portion of the authority soon fell into the hands of 
Ricimer, a general of Suevian extraction, who was equally 
capable of noble deeds and great crimes; prudent and 
eloquent, skilful and intrepid, but devoid of true honor, 
fidelity and gratitude, and guided only by his ambition. 
He might, at three difterent times, have assumed the pur- 
ple ; but he preferred to confer it on others, whom he 
raised, and aferwards destroyed in the most capricious 
manner. 

Within the short space of twenty-one years, no fewer 
than eight emperors successively appeared and disap- 
peared ; viz. 

Avitus, whose reign commenced in . . . 455. 

Majorien 457. 

Libius-Severus 461. 

Anthemius 467. 

Olybrius 472. 

Glycerius 473. 

Julius-Nepos 474. 

Romulus-Augustulus 475. 

Some of these emperors were men of great meiit, and, in 
more favorable circumstances, might have reigned with 
glory. Majorian especially, and nearlj the same might be 
said of Anthemius, was not less commendable for his moral 
and mental qualities than for his military acquirements ; 
but these two emperors incurred the displeasure of Rici- 
mer by not leaving the government in his hands, and 
were put to death by that ambitious and cruel minister. 
Notwithstanding so many revolutions and enormities, 
Ricimer vigorously repulsed the various foes who were 
striving to complete the dismemberment of the empire. 
Death alone put a stop to his career of crimes and victo- 
ries (472). 

The last emperor of the West, by a singular coinci- 
dence, bore the names both of the founder of the city 



180 ' MODERN HISTORY. 



Part II. 



(Romulus), and of the founder of the Roman empire 
(Augustus), being called Romulus-Augustus, or Augus- 
tulus (on account of his youth). At that time, the Ro- 
mans, blended with other nations which continually 
poured into their territory, had no longer any attachment 
either for the imperial government, or for emperors who 
could not defend them against their enemies. Odoacer, 
king of the Heruli, taking advantage of the apathy of 
the people, easily overthrew a tottering throne, the fall 
of which was accelerated by its own weakness. He at- 
tacked Augustulus in Ravenna, and, having made him- 
self master of the town, deprived him of the purple, 
tliough, through compassion for his age, he spared his life, 
and even granted him an honorable retreat near Naples. 
The conqueror found no greater difficulty in subduing 
Pavia, Rome, and all Italy, of which he was proclaimed 
king (a. d. 476). 

Thus was the Roman empire extinguished in the West, 
twelve hundred and twenty-nine years after the building 
of Rome, five hundred and seven after the battle of Ac- 
tium. Its downfall, occasioned by the weakness of many 
emperors and the despotism of armies, by civil wars and 
foreign invasions, was scarcely noticed in the world. It 
disappeared without any violent commotion, like a man full 
of years, who dies of decrepitude. The eastern empire, 
being less exposed to foreign attacks, and better defended 
by its capital and frontiers, subsisted yet for many centu- 
ries, during which its history is connected with that of 
nations of more recent origin ; but it never attained the 
power, splendor and wealth, which had distinguished an- 
cient Rome. 

Amidst so many disturbances and revolutions, religion 
alone fully maintained her influence and dignity. Far 
from yielding to the violence of the storms which shook 
the social world to its very centre, she exercised her 
.divine power over the very conquerors of Rome, and, 
founded upon an immovable rock by the hand of God 



A. D. 455—476. 



ETC. 181 



himself, triumphed over them, as she had formerly tri- 
umphed over her pagan persecutors. Even at this disas- 
trous and turbulent period, she began to tame and civilize 
those fierce barbarians who before acknowledged no law 
but that of the sword. Divine Providence seemed to 
have permitted their irruptions into the Roman provinces 
for no other view than to destroy, through their means 
the last remains of idolatry, and effect their own happ> 
conversion to the laws of the Gospel. On the other hand, 
the inhabitants of the invaded countries were led to un- 
derstand, in the midst of their suffering, that all was not 
lost for them, but that they would find a sure refuge in the 
Church of Christ. 



16 



PART III. 

FROM THE DOWNFALL OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE (A. D. 476), TO ITS 
REVIVAL UNDER CHARLEMAGNE (A. D. 800). 



FOUNDATION OF THE PEINCIPAL AND MOST CELE- 
BRATED STATES OF EUROPE. 

From the overthrow of the western empire we may date 
the foundation of the principal states now extant in Eu- 
rope. The northern tribes bj whose multiplied efforts its 
entire ruin was effected or accelerated, vied with each 
other in taking speedy possession of its fairest provinces. 
Having already mentioned the conquests of the Vandals 
and of the Heruli, we have to speak at present of the 
still more successful and celebrated establishment of the 
Anglo-Saxons in Great Britain, of the Visigoths in Spain, 
of the Franks in Gaul, and of the Ostrogoths in Italy. 



Sec. I.— ANGLO-SAXONS IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

HENGIST.— A. D. 449—488. 

Ever since the Roman troops had been totally with- 
drawn from Great Britain, the Picts and Scots seized 
every favorable opportunity to renew their inroads. Dis- 
trict after district became a scene of devastation, and the 
misery of the natives increased every day ; till, finding 
themselves destitute of all resource at home, they at length 
resolved to call in as auxiliaries a body of Anglo-Saxons, 
who, having sailed from the north of Germany, were then 
cruising in the channel along the coast in quest of plun- 



A. D. 449—4 



ANGLO-SAXONS IN BRITAIN. 183 



der. Adventurers like these could not fail to comply 
with a request which they justly presumed would turn to 
their own advantage. For six years (449-455) they fought 
the battles of the natives with great fidelity and success. 
But having by this time invited great numbers of their 
countrymen, they excited the jealousy and alarms of the 
Britons, who refused them an increased supply of 
provisions. 

This was the signal for a war which proved most fatal 
to the liberty of the natives. The Anglo-Saxons con- 
quered them in many battles, and began to bring under 
subjection the country which they had just defended 
against the Scottish invaders. Their first settlement 
upon the British territory was that of Kent, which the 
valiant chieftain Hengist gained and secured by a series 
of bloody victories, from the year 455 to 473, and which, 
at his death, in 488, he left in a prosperous condition to 
his son J^sca. The work of conquest was continued 
after him, and, though the Britons fought with great 
valor, and sometimes with success, for the independence 
of their country, their efforts ultimately proved fruitless, 
and the greater part of the island was subjugated by the 
Anglo-Saxons, v/ho, changing its name, laws and consti- 
tution, established in it seven independent kingdoms, 
commonly called the Heptarchy. 

By this conquest, the whole of the country was re- 
plunged into the state of barbarism from which it had been 
rescued by the Romans. It remained in that state until 
the close of the sixth century, when its conquerors received 
the light of the Gospel through the pious zeal of St. 
Augustine and forty other missionaries sent from Rome 
by Pope St. Gregory the Great. The natives, as soon as 
they found resistance useless, fled with their most valua- 
ble effects to the hills and forests, to escape from the ex- 
terminating sword of the invaders. Multitudes found a 
secure asylum in the craggy and mountainous districts of 
the country of Wales, which they afterwards occupied 



184 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part III. 



for many centuries. Others, crossing the ocean, landed 
on the western extremity of Armorica in Gaul, where 
they made permanent settlements, and gave to the tract 
which they inhabited the name of Britain, or Bretagne, 
which it still retains. 

Sec. II.— VISIGOTHS IN SPAIN. 

EVARIC— A. D. 466—484. 

The conquests of the Visigoths, or Western Goths, in 
Spain, were more rapid than those of the Anglo-Saxons 
in Britain. Their king Evaric, taking advantage of the 
weakness and continual change of the last Roman empe- 
rors, sent a powerful army from the south of Gaul to the 
nearest provinces beyond the Pyrenees. Astonishing 
was the success of this expedition : the very strongest 
towns opened their gates, and the natives, defeated in a 
great battle, abandoned a considerable portion of their 
country to the enemy. Upon this, Evaric himself arrived 
at the head of fresh troops ; the war was prosecuted with 
redoubled vigor; nothing could resist his arms, nor im- 
pede his progress ; and, with the exception of a few 
northern provinces occupied by the Suevians, the whole 
peninsula submitted to his power (a. d. 473). 

This warlike prince also subdued the portion of Aqui- 
tania not yet in his possession, and many other provinces 
in Gaul. The name of Evaric was now respected abroad : 
his court, which he established at Bordeaux, beheld am- 
bassadors from all the neighboring nations paying homage 
to him as to the mightiest monarch of Europe ; and this 
high reputation he enjoyed until his death. 

But, besides being a powerful conqueror and the 
founder of the kingdom of the Visigoths in Spain, Evaric 
wished also to be the legislator of his people. Until 
then, the Gothic legislation was very limited, consisting 
of some statutes of their kings, which had little authority 
among them, and were frequently disregarded in practice. 



A. D. 481—511. 



ETC. 185 



Evaric made and published a collection of those ancient 
laws, adding new regulations peculiarly adapted to the 
time, place and other circumstances. Well aware that 
on their faitliful observance depended his personal safety 
as well as the prosperity of the state, he carefully en- 
forced their execution, and thus began to accustom the 
Visigoths to the duties and practices of social life. 

Evaric died at Aries in 484, after a glorious reign of 
eighteen years. His uncommon talent for war and civil 
administration would have entitled him much more to the 
praise of posterity, had he not, through ambition, stained 
his hand v/ith the blood of his brother Theodoric II, and, 
through sectai'ian intolerance, treated his Catholic subjects 
with excessive rigor, he himself being an obstinate Arian. 
Great however were the benefits which he bestowed on 
his own people ; the conquest of the peninsula, especially, 
was so much the more fortunate for the Visigoths, as they 
were on the point of being expelled from their possessions 
in Gaul by a still greater conqueror, and forced to confine 
themselves to their newly acquired and more lasting king- 
dom of Spain. 

Sec. III.— franks IN GAUL. 

CLOVIS.— A. D. 481—511. 

This conqueror was Clovis, king of the Franks, who, 
for the magnitude and important consequences of his ex- 
ploits, is justly considered the real founder of the French 
monarchy. The Franks were not a single nation distinct 
from all others, but made up of several German tribes 
who had long before entered into a confederacy for the 
support of their independence. During the greater part 
of the fifth century, under four successive kings, they 
made frequent irruptions into Gaul, and took possession 
of its northern frontiers ; Clovis, more enterprising, un- 
dertook, at the early age of twenty years, to bring it 
entirely under his power. 
16* 



186 MODERN HISTORY. Part III. 

His first opponent was Syagrius, a brave general, who 
had formed a small state for himself in the north of Gaul 
on the ruins of the Roman empire. Clovis attacked 
him near Soissons (a. d. 486), and gained so complete a 
victory, that Syagrius, being left almost alone in his party, 
fled for refuge to the court of Alaric 11, king of the Visi- 
goths. Nor could this asylum save him from the hands 
of his victorious enemy. Clovis compelled Alaric, by 
threats and terror, to deliver up the unfortunate general 
whom he put to death, and, by this act of cruel policy, 
remained in full possession of his territory. 

After the lapse of some years, the French king was 
obliged, in consequence of a sudden invasion of the Ale- 
manni, to carry his arms to the banks of the Rhine. An 
obstinate battle was fought at Tolbiac, near Cologne, in 
which the Franks, almost entirely routed in the begin- 
ning, remained in the end masters of the field. It was 
after this unexpected triumph, which Clovis himself at- 
tributed to a special protection of the true God whom he 
had invoked during the contest, that both he and his na- 
tion, abandoning the worship of idols, embraced the 
Catholic faith (a. d. 496). 

During the course of the ensuing years, Clovis, always 
active and fond of conquests, continued to enlarge his 
empire. Either by force of arms, or by negotiations and 
treaties, he obliged the Arborici (inhabitants of Belgium) 
to acknowledge him for their king, subdued Bavaria, and 
rendered the Burgundians his tributaries. Such an in- 
crease of power in the French monarch was a source of 
uneasiness and alarm for his neighbors, particularly for 
Alaric, king of the Visigoths. Fearing for his own terri- 
tory, he raised troops for its defence. Nothing could be 
more consonant than this with the designs of Clovis, as 
it afforded him an occasion of declaring open war, and 
striking; at once a sio-nal blow. He marched with his 
usual rapidity, crossed the river Loire, came up with the 
army of the Visigoths near Poitiers, and forced them to 



A. D. 481-511. FRANKS TN GAUL, ETC. 187 

engage in a general battle (a. d. 507). After a sanguinary 
contest, victory declared in favor of Clovis. With his 
own hand, he struck Alaric dead ; the Visigoths then fled 
with all possible speed, their conquerors pursuing them 
in every direction. In less than two years, Clovis sub- 
dued nearly all their possessions between the Loire and 
the Pyrenees, including their principal towns, and thus 
nearly extinguished their domination in Gaul. He would 
even have carried his advantages farther, had not a con- 
siderable body of his troops been defeated, near Aries, by 
those of Theodoric, king of Italy. 

Still, this defeat did not deprive Clovis of the principal 
fruit of his labors. He preserved his former conquests, 
and returning to the north of Gaul, or rather France, as 
we shall henceforth call it, fixed his residence in Paris. 
The extraordinary reputation he had gained, being now 
far spread, and causing a great sensation even at the court 
of Constantinople, the emperor Anastasius sent him the 
ornaments of the consulship, as a mark of his esteem and 
alliance. Unfortunately, Clovis did not preserve his 
glory pure and entire to the end, but sullied it by several 
acts of cruelty against the princes of his own kindred, 
whose estates he wished to invade. He died in 511, at 
the age of forty -five, after a reign of thirty years, leaving 
his kingdom to be divided among four sons : a mode of 
succession which was followed after him on different oc- 
casions, and became a source of numberless disasters and 
civil wars. 

Although the government of Clovis had been rather 
military and despotic, it evinced on many points a wise 
and skilful policy. He did not, barbarian like, expel the 
natives from the provinces which he subdued, nor deprive 
them of their liberty and all their property ; he only re- 
quired that the lands of the country should be divided 
between them and his followers ; whence it followed that 
the two nations, living and dwelling together upon the 
same soil, were soon blended into one people. He also 



188 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part III, 



published a code of laws, one of which declared women 
unfit to inherit such estates as had been obtained by arms 
and conquest, and this gave rise to the fundamental regu- 
lation of the national constitution of France, according 
to which the French crown never devolves to women.* 

Sec. IV.— OSTROGOTHS IN ITALY. 

THEODORIC THE GREAT.— (a. d. 493—526.) 

Clovis, notwithstanding his justly renowned exploits 
and legislation, was neither the greatest warrior nor the 
ablest politician of his age, this praise being due rather to 
Theodoric, king of the eastern Goths or Ostrogoths. This 
nation, after the dismemberment of Attila's empire, set- 
tled first in Pannonia near the Danube, but, being little 
satisfied with its residence, set out in 489 on an expedi- 
tion against Italy. Odoacer, who was yet reigning there, 
did not fail to defend with courage a kingdom which he 
had now governed, during fourteen years, with great 
wisdom and glory. Still, victory every where followed 
the standard of Theodoric. Three battles lost by Odoacer, 
and the vigor with which the Goths pushed the siege of 
Ravenna in which he had taken refuge, obliged him to come 
to an agreement with his conqueror; he was first treated 
with cordiality; till Theodoric, sacrificing justice and 
humanity to the cruel policy of the times, perfidiously 
put to death a prince worthy of a better fate (a. d. 493). 
But, if the Gothic monarch had recourse to so odious a 
means for the acquisition of a new kingdom, he on the 
other hand took the wisest and most laudable measures to 
secure its possession. One of the most successful was., to 
enter into a permanent alliance with the neighboring 
princes. Some of them he compelled to live at peace 
with him ; others he attached to his family and to himself 

* "Le royaume de France ne tombe point en quenouille." — 
This is the famous Salic law, so called from the tribe of the Saltan 
Franks, to which Clovis belonged. 



A. D. 493-526. OSTROGOTHS IN ITALY, ETC. 189 

bj the ties of affinity; with others, in fine, he assumed 
the tone of parental authority, fully justified by his 
great wisdom and experience. '* You are young," he 
wrote to them, ''and stand in need of good advice. Your 
ambition and imprudent behavior afflict me, and I can- 
not see with indifference that you are ruled by your pas- 
sions." He was guided by these wise counsels him- 
self, taking care not to enlarge his dominions, by rashl}^ 
exposing the lives of his people or violating the laws of 
equity. •' Let others," said he, ** wage war for the sake 
of destruction and plunder; as for me, my intention is, 
with the help of God, to conquer my enemies in such a 
manner, that the vanquished may be sorry for not having 
been sooner of the number of my subjects." 

No sooner did Theodoric see his power firmly estab- 
lished in Italy, than he undertook to civilize his people 
under the benign influence of its climate. He adopted 
for that purpose the Roman jurisprudence, which he re- 
duced to one hundred and fifty statutes, well calculated, 
by the prudent rules and judicious maxims with which 
they abounded, to promote the public utility. He wished 
the Italians and the Goths, after a just division of the 
lands, to consider themselves not only as allies, but even 
as kinsmen and brothers, being governed upon the same 
principles and by one who looked upon himself as their 
common father. The only distinction established be- 
tween them was, that the carrying of arms and the per- 
formance of military duty were reserved to the Goths, 
civil employments and trades being left to the Romans. 
During the whole course of his reign, Theodoric proved 
the impartial benefactor of the two nations, and became 
equally endeared to both. Though an Arian by birth 
and education, instead of persecuting the orthodox, like 
the Vandal kings of Africa, his cotemporaries, he on the 
contrary favored and protected them ; and so firm was 
his conviction, acquired by experience, of the disinter- 
estedness and charity of the Catholic bishops, that he 



190 MODERN HISTORY. Part III. 

usually applied to them for the distribution of his alms to 
the poor and the exercise of his liberality towards the 
provinces. 

This great prince knew how to gather around him and 
select for his counsellors persons the most conspicuous 
for their merit and ability, such as Boetius, Cassiodorus, 
etc. Boetius was a man of consular dignity, of noble 
feelings and superior genius, which shine forth in all his 
writings, especially in his five books de Consolatione 
Philosophic. Cassiodorus, who. was not less distin- 
guished for his learning and virtue, is proposed chiefly as 
the model of a zealous, active and disinterested minister 
of state. After a most laborious life at court, he retired 
into a pleasant solitude in Calabria, where he devoted 
the remainder of his days to study, writing, and religious 
exercises, and died at the age of about one hundred years. 

Thus was literature, so long after the Augustan age, 
still cultivated with great success in Italy; and, whilst 
the Franks, the Burgundians, and the Visigoths, had 
scarcely begun to learn the principles of civilization, the 
court of Theodoric was the centre of learning and po- 
liteness. His palace was ever open to talents and merit. 
To him Rome was indebted for the rebuilding of its walls 
and the preservation of its ancient monuments ; Ravenna, 
Pavia and other cities, were also repaired or embellished. 
He protected every useful enterprise, revived agriculture 
and commerce, and gave to social intercourse such secu- 
rity, that neither citizens nor travellers had any thing to 
fear, either in the towns or in the country. 

The empire which Theodoric had founded, and which, 
by improving every fair occasion, he almost continually 
enlarged, was very extensive. He reigned over Italy, 
Sicily, Dalmatia, Pannonia, Rhetia, Noricum, and some 
of the finest provinces of France and Spain. But his 
glory, besides being already impaired by the unjust death 
of King Odoacer, was, like thatof Clovis, much diminished 
by several subsequent acts of cruelty. Old age and infirm- 



A, D. 493—526. 



ETC. 191 



ity made him suspicious. He listened to the slanders 
and false accusations of jealous courtiers against the 
most respectable men of the state. Cassiodorus resigned 
his offices, and left the court. Boetius, and Sjmmachus, 
his father-in-law, suffered capital punishment, without 
being convicted of any crime, and the holj Pope John I, 
was thrown into prison, where he died after a painful 
confinement of several months. 

Remorse for these acts soon assailed Theodoric. His 
bitter grief for his past cruelty, produced melancholy 
which accelerated his death. Most historians relate that, 
being one day at table, when a large fish had been served 
up, he imagined he saw in the dish the head of Sym- 
machus. He withdrew terrified from the table, went to 
his bed, and expired, a prey to anguish and remorse, at 
the age of seventy-four years (a. d. 526). He had how- 
ever sufficient time to proclaim, with the unanimous con- 
sent of those around him, his grand -son Athalaric for his 
successor, under the regency of Amalasontes, mother of 
this young prince. 

The administration of Theodoric was, during thirty 
years (from 494 to 524), a model of excellent government 
in almost every respect. Having previously shown to the 
world what he could do on the field of battle, he appeared, 
all that time, a modest conqueror, a wise legislator, and. 
a pacific monarch, who knew, by a happy mixture of 
severity and mildness, how to keep his victorious soldiers 
within the bounds of strict discipline, and to gain the 
hearts of his new subjects. When Belisarius conquered 
the Goths, he overthrew the statues of that great prince, 
but spared his sepulchre. It is yet extant in Ravenna, 
and attracts, by its elevation, the admiration of travellers. 



192 MODERN HISTORY. Part III. 

EMPERORS OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 

JUSTIN I.— A. D. 518—527. 

We must now revert to the eastern empire, which be- 
gan about this time to make a greater figure in the po- 
litical world than it had done under its last sovereigns, 
Basiliscus, Zeno and Anastasius I. After them, Justin, 
an officer of obscure parentage, but renowned for his 
valor, was judged worthy of the throne, at the advanced 
age of sixty-eight (a. d. 518). It is remarkable that this 
emperor knew neither how to read nor write, and still ren- 
dered important services to the state, during the nine 
years of his reign. Having natural talent and a sound 
mind which he improved by experience and by asking 
counsel of other prudent men, he easily perceived the 
course to be followed in difficult affairs, and always acted 
with wisdom and equity. 

He took particular care, on the one hand, to appoint 
able ministers and virtuous magistrates, and, on the other, 
to afford seasonable relief to his people in their calamities 
and disasters, which were then uncommonly frequent. 
But a short time before his elevation, a tremendous earth- 
quake had desolated several parts of lUyria. For some 
days, a chasm immensely deep, about twelve feet wide, 
and extending to the distance of thirty miles, threw out 
sparks and flames, and swallowed up trees, rocks and 
houses. Some years before, a dreadful conflagration had 
consumed many buildings in Constantinople, among oth- 
ers, that which contained the public library consisting of 
one hundred and twenty thousand volumes. An invalua- 
ble copy of the works of Homer, written in golden let- 
ters on the skin of a serpent one hundred and twenty feet 
long, was lost on this occasion. 

Again, in the years 59.5 and 59.6, similar accidents 
desolated or destroyed many cities, especially the great 
city of Antiocb, the capital of Syria. About noon of the 



A. D. 518-527. JUSTIN I. 193 

twenty-ninth of May (526), a sudden and violent shaking 
of the ground overthrew the houses in the western part 
of the town ; and, as the earthquake quickly reached the 
other quarters, nearly all the buildings fell, at tlie same 
moment, with a frightful crash. To this first evil, fire 
added its ravages. A subterraneous furnace, the usual at- 
tendant of earthquakes, ignited the very soil ; hot cinders 
were carried up by whirlwinds, and fell afterwards in the 
form of a fiery rain, which consumed the wood -work of 
the houses, whilst another fire, rising from the ground, 
augmented the conflagration. 

So unexpectedly did all those scourges come upon the 
inhabitants, that few of them could make their escape into 
the country ; and this great city, the most populous of the 
East, became all at once the common sepulchre of two 
hundred and fifty thousand persons. Most of them were 
crushed by the falling of the houses, or consumed by the 
flames ; but others met a fate which almost exceeds be- 
lief. Bands of robbers began to commit depredations 
in the midst of these scenes of death and destruction. 
Whilst numbers of unfortunate people, covered with 
bruises and wounds, were running in dismay through 
the streets or public places, in order to avoid impending 
ruin, they met murderers, who cruelly deprived them of 
life and took possession of their fortunes, and who, soon 
after, were themselves destroyed with their criminal 
booty. 

The deplorable spectacle of a city which barbarous 
conquerors have just taken by storm, would present but 
a faint idea of the desolation of Antioch. Some of the in- 
habitants, however, had the good fortune to escape from 
the ruins of their houses, under which they were for a time 
buried. Twenty or thirty days after, persons yet alive 
were taken from those sepulchres, where they had lived 
upon the victuals usually kept in families; but a far 
greater number were found dead. This earthquake, the 
fifth that Antioch suffered since its foundation, was the' 
17 



194 MODERN HISTORY. Pan III. 

most awful and disastrous. It lasted six days with un- 
interrupted violence, and during six months was felt at 
dift'erent times; nor was the ground entirely settled till 
eighteen months after. 

The news of this calamitous event pierced the heart of 
the emperor with grief. He presently despatched virtu- 
ous and trusty men, with considerable sums of money, to 
repair those cities which had suffered most, and rescue their 
surviving inhabitants from misery and despair. We are told 
that, in rebuilding Antioch alone, he spent fifty millions of 
livres (ten or twelve millions of dollars). It was in the 
course of these occupations, so worthy of a sovereign, 
that Justin closed his useful career {59.7). A short time 
before his death, he associated his nephew Justinian in the 
imperial power, and, by his demise, left this prince in a 
condition to raise to its proper height the edifice of glory 
of which he had laid the first foundation. 



GLORIOUS REIGN OF JUSTINIAN— a. d. 527—565. 

The reign of Justinian forms an interesting epoch in 
the history of the Greek empire. The enlarged views of 
this prince, the union of favorable circumstances, the 
highly cultivated state of the science of law, and the 
brilliant successes in diflferent wars, equally contributed 
to render it glorious. 

Justinian, on his elevation to the throne, resolved to 
reconquer the western provinces which formerly belonged 
to the Romans, and to improve the civil legislation. This 
latter design he executed with the assistance of the ablest 
civilians of his age, particularly the famous and learned 
questor Tribonian. There already existed, it is true, 
different collections of laws, published under Adrian, 
Theodosius II, etc.; but all of them were defective. To 
become well acquainted with the ancient jurisprudence, it 
was necessary to peruse two thousand volumes containing 



A. D. 527—565. 



JUSTINIAN. 195 



many inaccuracies and obscure passages, and even opposite 
and contradictory statutes. Justinian undertook to intro- 
duce order into that chaos, by comprising in a work of 
moderate extent, both the general principles of jurispru- 
dence, and the best laws or judiciary sentences that had 
been promulgated before his time, during the space of 
thirteen hundred years. 

He first ordered a select collection to be made of the 
imperial statutes, from the beginning of Adrian's reign. 
By the assiduity of Tribonian and his associates, the work 
was soon performed, and published under the name of the 
New or Justinian Code (a. d. 529). After three years 
more of immense labor, the Digest (Digestum), or Pan- 
dects (Pandecta), appeared in fifty books, containing the 
most equitable ordinances of ancient leo-islators with the 
best decisions of lawyers or civilians, under proper divi- 
sions and titles. To render the study of these books 
easier and more useful, some introduction was necessary ; 
this also was made, and four other books, called Insti- 
tutes, were promulgated, which not only are the key to 
the Roman jurisprudence, but even contain the funda- 
mental principles of all legislation. Of the different parts 
of the Justinian compilation, it is the best and most ad- 
mirable. In fine, the emperor revised his Code, pub- 
lished it again more correctly in 534, and to the ordi- 
nances contained in it added a great number of statutes, 
the collection of which, under the title NovellaSy completed 
what we call the JRoman or the Civil Law. 

Such was the origin of that famous body of laws, which, 
notwithstanding some imperfections, is the most remarka- 
ble that human wisdom ever produced. It was gradually 
adopted in several countries ; and it is moreover from that 
abundant source of social principles, that the states of 
Europe derive the greater portion or supply the deficiency 
of their respective Codes. 

Whilst Justinian was engaged in this important work, 
he did not forget the other design he had formed of re- 



196 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part III. 



conquering the western provinces of the empire now 
occupied bj the barbarians. Not to be surrounded with 
enemies on all sides, he ended a long and undecisive war 
against the Persians by a solemn treaty of peace, and then 
directed all his efforts to the conquest of Africa. The 
Vandals, who were still masters of that country, had very 
much degenerated from their former courage ; and per- 
petual quarrels among the descendants of Genseric con- 
tributed to weaken more and more their political strength. 
One of these dissensions furnished Justinian with an op- 
portunity to send a fleet and an army to Africa, under the 
command of Belisarius (a. d. 53S). 

This general had already, during the preceding Persian 
war, begun to display that extraordinary skill in the art of 
commanding armies, which afterwards rendered him equal 
to the greatest generals of ancient Rome. He sailed from 
Constantinople with five hundred and ninety-two vessels 
of all dimensions, and, after a long voyage, landed on the 
shores of Africa, at some distance from Carthage. His 
troops amounted to scarcely sixteen thousand men ; but 
they were full of ardor, and the general was himself a 
host. The Vandals, on the contrary, had numerous troops; 
but their generals were unskilled in war, and showed more 
valor than prudence : two of them perished in a first battle ; 
the others, with King Gelimer, were put to flight. This 
enabled Belisarius to advance through the country with- 
out further obstacle. Every where he was received as a 
deliverer by the ancient inhabitants, especially by those 
of Carthage. The rigor and barbarism of the Vandals had 
long since exasperated their minds ; whereas the mildness 
of Justinian's general, and the excellent discipline which 
he maintained in his army, gained him universal confi- 
dence and affection. From Carthage, Belisarius went in 
pursuit of Gelimer. Having found him stationed at Tri- 
cameron, a place twenty miles distant from Carthage, a 
second battle was fought, in which, with only ten thousand 
men against one hundred thousand Vandals, he obtained 



A. D. 527-555. 



JUSTINIAN. 197 



a glorious victory, remaining master of the whole coun- 
try, and getting possession of the treasures, and even, in 
a short time of the person of the king (534). 

This prince had fled from the field of battle to the ex- 
tremity of Numidia, and there shut himself up in a town 
situated on the summit of a high mountain. Belisarius, 
whose presence was necessary at Carthage, sent one of 
his generals, named Pharas, with a part of the army, to in- 
vest that place, and, if possible, to take the king prisoner. 
Accordingly, the town was closely besieged, and, before 
the expiration of three months, reduced to the last ex- 
tremity. In the meanwhile, Pharas wrote to Gelimer, and 
exhorted him to surrender, with a positive assurance that 
he would be honorably treated by Justinian, The unfor- 
tunate prince wept whilst reading the letter, and, in his 
answer, after expressing his unwillingness to become a 
captive, requested Pharas to send him a loaf, a sponge 
and a lute : a loaf, because he had not seen any bread for 
a long time ; a sponge, to wash his wounds ; and a lute, 
to accompany his voice when singing his misfortunes. 

Pharas, moved with compassion, granted the request, 
but still continued, with diligent care, to obstruct all the 
avenues of the fortress. At length, Gelimer was afraid 
lest it should be taken by storm, and consented to capitu- 
late. He descended from the mountain, and, on the re- 
peated assurances of an honorable treatment, went with 
Pharas to Carthage, where he delivered himself into the 
hands of Belisarius. 

Thus was Africa again subjected to the Roman power,* 
and the kingdom of the Vandals destroyed after a dura- 
tion of one hundred and six years. Belisarius, having 
provided, as well as he was able, for the security of his 
conquest, returned to Constantinople, where he received 

♦The empire of Constantinople retained for many centuries the 
name of Roman or Eastern, though it is also frequently designated by the 
appellation of Greek or Lower Empire. 

17* 



198 MODERN HISTORY. Pan in. 

honors proportionate to the greatness of his exploits. He 
had taken the precaution to make Gelimer embark with 
him and leave Africa. When this unhappy monarch was 
solemnly presented to the emperor, in the middle of an 
immense concourse of people, no sigh, no tear escaped 
him ; but appearing to be plunged in deep reflection on 
the present state of his fortune, he several times repeated 
those words of Scripture: Vanity of vanities, and all is 
vanity.^ Justinian gave him a rich estate in Galatia, 
where he was permitted to live in quiet with his family. 
Scarcely had the African provinces been reunited to 
the empire, when similar views began to be manifested 
with respect to Italy. The unjust death inflicted by un- 
grateful subjects on Queen Amalasontes, who had been 
a faithful ally to the court of Constantinople, was for the 
emperor a favorable pretext for attacking the Goths. In 
the year 535, the conqueror of Africa, Belisarius, unex- 
pectedly appeared in Sicily, at the head of seven thousand 
five hundred men. With this handful of soldiers that 
great general knew how to achieve exploits, which others 
would have found difficult to accomplish with very nu- 
merous armies.t After subduing the island, he passed 
over to the continent, and either by storm or surprise, by 
force or capitulation, took Naples, Rome, Ravenna, with 
many other cities, defeated the Goths on several occasions, 
and finally compelled their King Vitiges to embark, as 
Gelimer had done, for Constantinople, where the Gothic 
monarch also received estates and honorable titles from 
Justinian, as a compensation for the loss of his kingdom 
(a. d. 540). 

* Eccles. i, 2. 

t This appeared particularly in the year 537, when Belisarius, after 
taking Rome, was himself besieged in that city by an army of one hun- 
dred and fifty thousand men. The siege lasted twelve months and nine 
days, during which the two parties had engaged seventy times, with a 
great display of valor on each side ; but Belisarius, with only the twen- 
tieth part of the enemy's forces, defeated all their efforts, and finally 
obliged them to retire. — Procopius, De Bella Goth.; Lebeau, Hist, du 
Bas. empire, vol. ix. b. 44, p. 395 to 473. 



A. D. 527—565. 



JUSTINIAN. 199 



Still, the power of the Goths in Italy was not yet en- 
tirely overthrown. Notwithstanding the tremendous blow 
it had just received, it recovered for a time its former 
strength, and even acquired, after the departure of Beli- 
sarius, an astonishing superiority, under the conduct of 
Totila, whom the Goths chose for their leader (a. d. 541). 

Of all the successors of Theodoric the Great, Totila 
was the only one who perfectly resembled him in pru- 
dence, activity, valor, justice and generosity. He con- 
quered the Roman commanders in Italy, as often as he 
attacked them, and retook Rome in spite of all the exer- 
tions made by Belisarius after his return (a. d. 546). 
This great general, left by the emperor without the 
necessary supplies of ammunition and troops, saw his 
former prosperity decline, and resigned the command of 
the army, leaving to Narses the honor of terminating 
the war. 

Narses was one of those extraordinary men whom 
Providence prepares, as it were, in secret, for the pros- 
perity or the destruction of states. Though a stranger, 
of small size and mean appearance, he had risen from a 
slave, to be one of the first officers in the palace of Jus- 
tinian. Possessed as he was of a quick and sound judg- 
ment, of a profound and extensive genius, his wisdom in 
contriving the best plans, and his activity in executing 
them, insured the success of his undertakings. The de- 
ficiency of regular studies was abundantly supplied in 
him by a natural and noble eloquence. He possessed in 
an eminent degree all the virtues not incompatible with a 
certain ambition, above all, generosity and beneficence. 
As for his talents in war, they only wanted an occasion 
for their display, and without having been a soldier, he 
all at once appeared a consummate general. 

Besides these natural advantages, Narses enjoyed the 
favor of Justinian, who readily granted him what had 
been refused to Belisarius, viz: all the troops, money 
and ammunition requisite to carry on the war with vigor 



200 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part III. 



and success. Being thus well provided in every respect, 
he had but to appear in Italy, to check the prosperous 
fortune of the Goths, and the very first battle which he 
fought, in the plains of Lentagio, entirely turned the 
scale in favor of the Romans. In vain did Totila make 
every effort to maintain the superiority which he had ac- 
quired ; his army was completely defeated, his bravest 
warriors were killed, and he himself, being forced to fly 
for the first time in his life, died of his wounds a few 
hours after the end of the battle. Narses immediately 
sent to Constantinople the news of his victory, together 
with the cuirass and the crown of Totila ; and Justinian 
received, in the middle of the senate, these spoils taken 
from a prince far superior to him in personal merit 
(a. d. 552). 

The Goths, although vanquished, and deeply afflicted 
at the death of their excellent king, did not lose courage, 
but hastened to give him a worthy successor in the person 
of Teias, the bravest of his lieutenants. In this arduous 
post, Teias answered, as well as could be expected from 
existing circumstances, the hopes of his nation, and, 
being unable to save it, strove at least to retard its entire 
overthrow. He rallied the remains of the Gothic army, 
and, leaving the open country to the victorious troops of 
Narses, went to occupy a strong position near mount 
Vesuvius. The Roman general, at the head of all his 
forces, pursued him so closely, that the Goths began to 
suffer considerably from famine. Then, considering the 
decaying state of their fortune, which was on the point of 
being utterly lost, these magnanimous and last survivors 
of a nation formerly so flourishing, looked at their swords, 
and resolved to fight once more, either to conquer by a 
last effort, or at least to die with glory. 

No sooner had they come to this determination, than, 
descending from the heights, they rushed with desperate 
fury against the enemy : but the resistance was not less 
vigorous than the attack was violent. The Romans were 



A. D. 527—565. 



JUSTINIAN. 201 



encouraged by the remembrance of past success, and an 
implicit confidence in the superior talents of their general ; 
the Goths were animated by despair and by the example of 
their king, who having taken his post in the first rank, dis- 
played the most heroic courage, and, for the space of four 
hours, spread among the enemy terror and death. As- 
sailed as he was by a multitude of javelins and arrows, 
Teias, immovable as a rock, with one hand warded off 
the weapons, and, with the other, slew as many Romans 
as came within his reach. At length, unable to bear up 
his shield, which was pierced with twelve javelins, he 
asked for another. Whilst he was taking it from the 
hands of his armor-bearer, and putting off the first, his 
breast for an instant remained uncovered, and at this very 
moment, he received a deadly blow. He continued to 
fight until he became exhausted, and then fell with his 
face toward the foe. 

The Romans cut off the head of this valiant prince, and 
exposed it, on the top of a pike, to the gaze of both ar- 
mies, especially to that of the Goths, in order to throw 
them into consternation and despair. But the courage of 
those intrepid warriors, instead of being abated by this 
melancholy event, was rather increased by the desire of 
avenging the death of Teias. They therefore continued 
fighting with great heroism, until the darkness of night 
separated them from the Romans. Both parties spent the 
night on the field of battle, and, as soon as the dawn ap- 
peared, the combat was renewed with the same fury, and 
maintained with the same obstinacy as the day before ; 
nor could Narses put to flight enemies who were few in 
number, wounded and fatigued, but, at the same time, 
buoyed up by their excitement, and making their last 
desperate effort. Giving up the hope of conquering men 
to whom liberty was dearer than life, he permitted them 
to retire unmolested, on condition that they would never 
more unsheath their swords against the empire. After 
this, he easily achieved the conquest of Italy, the sieges 



202 MODERN HISTORY. . Part III. 

of various towns, and some battles less important; all 
these transactions being for him only occasions of new 
triumphs (553). The kingdom of the Ostrogoths thus 
disappeared for ever, after a short duration of sixty years, 
during which it had produced three heroes worthy of that 
name, Theodoric, Totila and Teias. The authority of 
Justinian being now acknowledged throughout Italy, 
Narses, by his appointment and in his name, governed 
the country which he had so gloriously subjugated. 

Warfare however was not yet entirely at an end, owing 
to the share which the French took for a long time in these 
public broils. The successors of Clovishad inherited his 
warlike spirit, which they all exerted in subduing the 
little neighboring states : but none among them became 
as remarkable in this respect, as Theodebertus, king of 
Austrasia and of a considerable part of Germany. So 
great was his reputation for ability and valor, that both 
the Greeks and the Ostrogoths, from the very beginning 
of their contest, eagerly courted his alliance. He prom- 
ised it to each nation, but was faithful to neither; his 
design being to conquer for himself. With this treach- 
erous and interested view, he crossed the Alps at the head 
of a powerful army, attacked both parties successively, 
defeated them, and would probably have remained sole 
master of the disputed regions, had not a contagious dis- 
temper, which broke out among his soldiers, obliged him 
to retire with considerable loss (a. d. 539). 

After his retreat, though none of those who followed 
him had perished by the sword of the Romans, Justinian 
had the ridiculous vanity to assume the title of Francicus, 
or conqueror of the French. Theodebertus, filled with 
indignation, resolved to avenge the insult, and, by follow- 
ing the course of the Danube, to invade Thrace, and then 
attack the very capital of the empire. Already great pre- 
parations were making for this purpose, and the emperor 
began to tremble in Constantinople, when Theodebertus 
died in the flower of his age (a. d. 548), and there was 



A. D. 527-565. JUSTINIAN. 203 

none after him skilful or bold enough to execute his 
projects. 

It was only towards the end of the Gothic war, that two 
of his successor's generals, Leutharis and Bucelin, under- 
took, in their own name, the defence of the Goths, who 
were now deprived of every other resource. They passed 
over the Alps into Italy, with seventy-five thousand war- 
riors, French and Germans. This army, like a furious 
torrent, overran the whole peninsula, from the northern 
provinces to the southern extremity of Calabria, sweeping 
away or destroying every thing in its impetuous course. 
Leutharis then desired to secure his booty, by returning 
to the north ; but was entirely foiled in his design. Being 
first defeated by the Romans during his march, he had 
scarcely reached and recrossed the river Po, when a 
dreadful pestilence carried him oiF, with nearly all his 
soldiers, a just punishment for the depredations and cruel- 
ties which they had committed. 

In the meanwhile, the army of Bucelin was also in a 
very perplexed condition : Narses, unable, in the opening 
of the campaign, to stop his progress, succeeded at last in 
famishing his wearied troops. This induced the German 
chieftain to engage in a general battle, rather than let all 
his followers die of sickness and starvation. The two 
armies met near Capua, on the banks of the little river 
Casilino, from which the bloody fight took its name. 
Never was there witnessed greater impetuosity on the one 
side, nor more valiant resistance on the other ; nor was 
there ever a more striking proof of the superiority of true 
courage regulated by discipline, over blind and unre- 
strained bravery. Although the Romans and their auxil- 
iaries found themselves at first in great danger, from the 
violence of the enemy's attack, the defeat of the French 
and Germans was so complete, that, out of thirty thou- 
sand, only five men escaped, all the others being slain 
with their g;eneral ; whereas the conquerors, whose num- 
ber scarcely amounted to eighteen thousand, did not lose 



204 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part III. 



more than eighty men. All of them had performed prodi- 
gies of valor ; but the honor of the day was by every one 
attributed to Narses, whose presence of mind and supe- 
rior genius had changed into so glorious a triumph, a 
combat the beginning of which seemed almost desperate 
for the Romans (554). Shortly after, he cut to pieces 
another party of French, who were occupying a large 
portion of the country between the Po and the moun- 
tains. So many losses made them abandon the hope of 
obtaining a footing in Italy. 

Whilst the bravest troops and the ablest generals of 
the empire were thus employed in the West, the Persians 
had recommenced the war in the East (a. d. 540). During 
many years, their King Chosroes I, surnamed the Great, 
spread devastation through the rich provinces of Mesopo- 
tamia and Syria, burning or sacking the towns, plunder- 
ing the country, and routing the armies sent for its 
defence. He several times returned, after his campaigns, 
to Persia with an immense booty, or after having forced 
Justinian to pay him a heavy tribute. Belisarius repaired 
in some degree the dishonor of the Roman arms ; but af- 
ter his departure, when he went to Italy for the second 
time, it daily increased under other generals, particularly 
when thirty thousand Romans were defeated by four 
thousand Persians, and, on another occasion, fifty thou- 
sand by only three thousand.* At length, a signal victory 
and other advantages gained by the troops of Justinian, 
permitted him to conclude a truce less disgraceful to the 
empire (555). 

This truce was the more opportune as the state was 
visited at this period with many other calamities. Earth- 
quakes overthrew many buildings, and pestilence de- 
stroyed many of the inhabitants of Constantinople; on 
the other hand, the Huns made a furious irruption into 



* Lebeau, Hist, du Bas. empire, vol. x, p. 225 — 228 ; and vol. xi, p. 
18 — 22. — Agath. andProcop. I)e Bello Fersico. 



A, D. 527-565. JUSTINIAN. 205 

Thrace, and advanced so far as to threaten the capital. 
Belisarius was once more, on this occasion, the glorious 
defender and strongest bulwark of the empire. Thougli 
scarcely able, on account of old age, to wield a sword, 
he marched out with a handful of warriors against the 
barbarians, and obliged them to retire (559). 

In return for so many services, the suspicious emperor, 
deceived by the slanders of the court, and believing Beli- 
sarius privy to a late conspiracy, stripped this great man 
of all his honors, and condemned him to an ignominious 
confinement which lasted seven months. It is even said 
and believed by many that his eyes were put out, and 
that he was reduced to such misery, as to beg his bread 
in the streets of Constantinople, But this seems to be a 
mere tale, quite unknown to contemporary historians, 
and founded on no better authority than that of John 
T'zetzeSj.an injudicious Greek writer of the twelfth cen- 
tury. More ancient authors, as Cedrenus, Theophanes, 
instead of mentioning any such fact, relate that Belisa- 
rius recovered his dignities and the friendship of the 
emperor. 

Both of them died shortly after, and in the same year 
(565). Justinian was in the eighty-fourth year of his life, 
and the thirty- ninth of a reign which had been more 
famous abroad than prosperous at home, especially towards 
its close. The armies now stood in a miserable condi- 
tion for want of regular pay, and the provinces were groan- 
ing under the pressure of heavy taxes, which served only 
to enrich covetous courtiers, or were spent in purchasing 
peace from the barbarians. Moreover, the emperor's 
munificence often degenerated into prodigality, which, 
superadded to an inordinate passion for new buildings, 
one of the incorrigible defects of Justinian, caused im- 
mense sums to be expended, which might have been much 
better employed. 

It should also be remarked that, after having amended 
the Roman legislation, he frequently altered his own 

18 



206 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part III. 



laws, or suffered them to be changed by his courtiers and 
ministers, in accordance with their interests and passions. 
The same inconstancy, and a weak condescension for his 
haughty and wicked wife Theodora, often betrayed him 
into wrong and unjust measures, so far as to disgrace his 
ardent zeal for religion, by the violence of his measures, 
and by his continual attempts to rule and direct the affairs 
of the church, whilst he neglected those of the empire. 
Owing to his imprudence, the factions of the circus ex- 
cited many disturbances, sometimes even bloody seditions 
in Constantinople, the emperor's blind partiality for one 
of the parties having increased their mutual animosity, 
which continued under his successors, and proved one of 
the greatest calamities of that capital. In a word, al- 
though Justinian possessed great talents and many vir- 
tues, one might reasonably think, from the general tenor 
of his government, that he was rather an idle spectator of 
the splendid transactions that occurred during his reign, 
and that he really did less good than evil to both church 
and state. 

However, it would be unjust to deny that this emperor 
had noble views, and formed truly glorious designs. The 
reformation of jurisprudence, the conquest of Italy and 
Africa, his endeavors to increase the power and splendor 
of the empire, were certainly undertakings calculated to 
confer undying honor on any reign. If he did not him- 
self carry them into execution, his at least was the glory 
of having contrived the plans, furnished the means, and 
effected their accomplishment through the instrumentality 
of talented individuals whose services his good fortune 
placed at his disposal. 



JUSTIN 11.— TIBERIUS II.— 565— 582. 

At the death of Justinian, who left no issue, the impe- 
rial sceptre passed into the hands of his nephew, Justin II. 



A. D. 5bo— oba 



JUSTIN IT. TIBERIUS II. 207 



This prince commenced his reign with universal applause, 
having, on the verj first day, redressed many grievances, 
and paid innumerable debts contracted by Justinian in his 
old age. His subsequent conduct was not, it is true, 
always marked by the same love of law and justice ; still, 
the emperor displayed it on many other occasions, par- 
ticularly in the following occurrence, which is well de- 
serving of notice. 

In order to check fraud and extortion in the capital, 
Justin appointed for its prefect a magistrate of renowned 
integrity, who was not less firm in the discharge of his 
duty, than upright and virtuous. He invested him with 
unlimited power to punish, without appeal and without 
hope of pardon, all criminals, of whatever rank or condi- 
tion; a just, though severe statute, w4iich frightened all 
iniquitous men and extortioners, one only excepted, a proud 
nobleman, who thought himself above the reach of either 
<livine or human law. A complaint was lodged against 
this man by a poor widow whom he had robbed of all her 
property. The prefect, through regard for the accused, 
who was a relation to the emperor, wrote to him, and 
intrusting the letter to none but the injured widow, begged 
him to indemnify her for the wrong she had suffered. 
The only satisfaction she received was affronts and ill 
treatment. 

The prefect, hearing this, was inflamed with indigna- 
tion, and summoned the offender before his tribunal ; but 
his new orders were equally despised, and answered only 
with fresh insults and railleries against both the judge and 
the judgment. Instead of appearing, the haughty noble- 
man went to the palace, where he was invited to dine, 
with a great number of courtiers. No sooner did the pre- 
fect know that he was at table with the emperor, than he 
himself entered the dining-room, and said to Justin : 
** My lord, if you persist in the resolution which you have 
manifested of punishing oppression and violence, I also 
shall continue to fulfil your orders. But if you renounce 



208 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part III. 



a design so worthy of you, if the worst of men are hon- 
ored with your favor, and admitted to your table, receive 
my resignation of an office which becomes useless to your 
subjects, and cannot but be displeasing to yourself." To 
this noble remonstrance Justin answered that he had no-t 
changed his mind. *' Punish," said he to the prefect, 
*' punish injustice every where ; were it even seated with 
me upon the throne, I would rather descend, to deliver it 
up to punishment.'* The virtuous magistrate did not 
desire more : emboldened by this answer, he presently 
orders the culprit to be seized in the midst of the guests, 
and carried before his tribunal. The widow's complaints 
are heard, and as that man, before so arrogant, and novf 
speechless and trembling, could not urge any thing in 
his defence, the prefect ordered him to be stripped and 
beaten with rods, and then to ride upon an ass, with his 
face turned to the tail, through all the streets of the city; 
his effects were moreover forfeited for the benefit of the 
widow. This exemplary chastisement stopped for some 
time the course of usurpation and extortion. The empe- 
ror rewarded the resolute conduct of the prefect by 
^ raising him to the rank of a patrician, and confirming hina 
in his charge for the remainder of his life.* 

The other qualifications of Justin were not equal to his 
zeal for the enforcement of the laws and of good order. 
He was dissolute, indolent, pusillanimous, and, at the 
same time, haughty to excess towards the ambassadors of 
foreign nations. This unbecoming pride, which his wife 
Sophia too faithfully imitated, occasioned bloody wars, 
and caused great losses to the empire* That princess, 
having long since harbored a deep hatred against Narses, 
the conqueror, and at that time, the governor of Italy, 
sent him a spindle and a distaff, with a scornful letter, 
telling him that those articles were more suitable for hira 

* This act of firmness and vigor is by some referred to the reign oX 
Justin I, but more probably belongs to that of Justin II, and to the year 
574. — See Lebeau, Histoire du Bas. empire, vol. xi.p. 235, 237. 



D. 58G 



JUSTIN II. TIBERIUS II. 209 



than the command of armies and the government of pror 
vinces : for which reason she ordered him to depart from 
Italy, and return to Constantinople, to be employed in 
the palace. 

Narses had virtue, firmness and courage, but not to 
such a degree as patiently to bear so cruel an affront. On 
the perusal of the letter, his eyes sparkled with wrath, 
and, in a sarcastic tone : " Go," said he to the messen- 
ger, '*and tell the empress, that I will cut out for her 
more work than she desires." He immediately wrote to 
the nation of the Lombards (so called from their long 
beards), inviting them to come and invade Italy. He 
soon repented of his treason, and died with the bitter 
regret of having by that one act, dishonored a life of nine- 
ty-five years, the last portion of which had been ennobled 
by so many glorious achievements.* But his repentance 
came too late to prevent the evil consequences of his 
rash step: the Lombards had already set out under the 
guidance of their King Alboin (568). They crossed the 
Alps from the north-east, and meeting with little opposi- 
tion, subdued all that part of the peninsula which received 
from them the name of Lombardy. Pavia was the capi- 
tal of this new kingdom; the invaders did not advance 
far enough, or in sufficient numbers to take the other chief 
cities, Rome, Naples, Ravenna, etc. These therefore 
continued, for nearly two centuries more, under the power 
of the emperors of Constantinople, Ravenna being chosen, 
on account of its advantageous situation, to be the resi- 
dence of the governors whom they appointed under the 
title of exarchs. 

The imprudence of Justin gave rise also to a new war 
against the Persians, the beginning of which did great 

* In this we follow the account commonly given by historians ; stiJI 
it should be observed, in justification of Narses, that several learned 
critics deny his having yielded to his resentment and made any proposal 
to the Lombards about the invasion of Italy; which invasion, they say, 
was undertaken for a variety of other causes. — Lebeau, vol. xi,p. 179 ; — 
Annales du raoyen age, vol. in, p. 188. 

18* 



210 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part in 



injury to the Romans. Whilst the emperor, more ready 
to threaten than to execute, remained shut up in his 
palace, Chosroes, ever active and intrepid, unexpectedly 
appeared on the frontiers at the head of one hundred and 
forty thousand men, attacked Mesopotamia and Syria, 
and with little or no opposition, desolated those rich pro- 
vinces. The intelligence of these disasters threw Justin 
into a deep melancholy which degenerated into real mad- 
ness, the paroxysms of which became more and more 
frequent. Having fortunately retained his senses suf- 
ficiently to feel that he was no longer able to govern 
without a colleague, he made choice of Tiberius, the com- 
mander of his guards, a man universally respected for 
his prudence and virtue, and intrusted to him the reigns 
of government (a. d. 574). 

It would have been difficult to make a better choice; 
and Chosroes soon perceived, to his cost, that the impe- 
rial court was now directed by a more vigorous hand. 
He saw the career of his triumphs and prosperity checked 
at the battle of Melitine, a town of Lesser Armenia, 
where he found himself opposed by one hundred and fifty 
thousand men, Romans and auxiliaries, whom Tiberius 
had mustered from the different parts of the empire as well 
as from the surrounding nations. Notwithstanding the 
exertions of Chosroes during the contest, most of the 
Persians were put to the sword, or driven into the Eu- 
phrates, where they perished. The dejected monarch 
fled with all haste to the extremities of Persia, and died 
in grief and despair, after a memorable reign of forty-eight 
years. 

Whilst Tiberius was thus restoring the honor of the 
Roman armies, he was not less careful to restore the inte- 
rior tranquillity of the state. Crimes and extortions were 
checked by severe laws. The vain magnificence and 
useless expenses of the imperial court were abolished, 
and by this wise measure Tiberius enabled himself to 
support the standing army, diminish the taxes, relieve the 



A. D. 565-582. 



JUSTIN II. TIBERIUS II. 211 



wants of divers provinces, and gain the hearts of his sub- 
jects, by conferring on them benefits worthy of a good 
and great prince. He considered them all as his children, 
the state as his family, and the sovereign power as a 
blessing which he must render, as much as possible, com- 
mon to all, by his equity, kindness and liberality. 

Amidst these laudable employments, the death of Jus- 
tin, in 578, left him sole master. As the empress Sophia, 
by her counsels and influence, had been instrumental in 
placing him on the throne, she expected that, as she was 
now a widow, he would marry her, and thus enable her to 
preserve the title of empress. But Tiberius was already 
married, a fact of which she was not aware. On the day of 
his coronation, he made his virtuous wife, Anastasia, sud- 
denly appear in the sight of the people, and crowned her 
with his own hands, to the extreme joy of all the specta- 
tors except Sophia, whose disappointment can scarcely be 
imagined. This ambitious princess, in the violence of her 
resentment, did all in her power to dethrone a sovereign to 
v/hose elevation slie had so much contributed. Tiberius 
contented himself with depriving her of the great riches 
which had been left at her disposal, and in spite of her 
intrigues, remained in quiet possession of the throne. 

He occupied it only four years, and during this short 
interval, constantly displayed virtues equal to his rank. 
To procure the welfare of his people and maintain the 
honor of the empire, were now, as they had hitherto been, 
the constant objects of his solicitude. If, for want of 
sufficient forces, he could not expel the Lombards from 
their conquests in Italy, nor prevent the Avari, a Scyth- 
ian nation, from obtaining a similar settlement in Panno- 
nia ; he at least continued, though desirous of peace, to gain 
great advantages against the Persians, whose new king 
Hormisdas was obstinately bent on prosecuting the war. 

For these successes, the emperor was chiefly indebted 
to Mauritius, commander of his armies in the East* 
Mauritius was a man of great valor and experience, and. 



212 MODERN HISTORY 



Part III. 



with the exception of a certain taint of avarice, still more 
commendable for the qualities of his heart. Tiberius, 
whose health was rapidly declining, thought he could do 
nothing better for the state than to appoint him his suc- 
cessor. This he did in a solemn assembly with universal 
applause, and died the next day (14th of August, 582), 
leaving Constantinople in deep affliction for the loss of so 
excellent an emperor, and yet in the cheering hope of 
equal prosperity under the new sovereign. 



MAURITIUS.— A. D. 582—602. 

The triumphs of Mauritius over the Persians had 
raised him to the throne: in order to maintain his own 
work, and pursue the course of his victories, he sent 
numerous armies to the frontiers ; but the misunderstand- 
ing of the troops and generals permitted the enemy to 
regain the superiority in the first campaigns. At length, 
good order was re-established, and the Persians were con- 
quered in many battles. These defeats, joined to the 
intolerable pride and cruelty of Hormisdas, roused his 
subjects against him. He was thrown into a dungeon, 
and, shortly after, put to death, with the consent of his 
son Chosroes II, who began to reign in his place. 

But Chosroes himself was not secure upon a throne 
lately stained with his father's blood. A considerable 
portion of the army persevered in its rebellion against 
the royal family, and defeated the troops of the King. 
In this distress, Chosroes, trusting more to a generous 
enemy than to disloyal subjects, fled for refuge to the 
Roman boundaries, from which he wrote a moving letter 
to Mauritius, requesting his assistance and protection. 
Mauritius liberally complied with the request. By his 
orders, the fugitive monarch was treated in a manner 
worthy of a sovereign, and moreover supplied with a pow- 
erful army, whose exertions enabled him to re-enter his 



A. D. 582-602. 



MAURITIUS. 213 



own dominions in triumph, to crush the rebels, and regain 
the undisturbed possession of his kingdom (a. d. 593). 

In return for these signal benefits, Chosroes yielded to 
the Romans the territories and cities for which so much 
blood had been shed and so many battles fought within 
the last years. A permanent peace was concluded between 
Persia and the empire; and thus, instead of meanly fo- 
menting the internal feuds of a powerful and rival state, 
Mauritius had the honor of bringing them to a happy 
termination, of replacing an exiled sovereign upon his 
throne, and of ending, by an act of generosity far more 
commendable than all his victories, a long and violent 
struggle which had proved so fatal to both nations. 

The emperor then directed his attention chiefly to the 
defence of the northern frontier against the attacks of 
the Avari. These barbarians were accustomed to a life 
of warfare and pillage: frequently victorious and suc- 
cessful in their attempts, sometimes conquered and re- 
pulsed, they incessantly renewed their inroads, and 
spread devastation through Mesia, Thrace and other 
provinces. At last, a masterly expedition of Priscus, 
one of the Roman generals, in 601, almost annihilated 
their forces, without however destroying their warlike 
and restless spirit. 

This brave commander, having resolved to strike a 
signal blow, crossed the Danube with the intention of 
attacking the Avari upon their own territories, and imme- 
diately sent away the boats, in order to reduce his own 
soldiers to the necessity of conquering or perishing. 
This being done, he marched out of his camp, with all 
his troops drawn up in battle array; and, as it was the 
custom of the barbarians to fight in separate bodies and 
in a desultory manner, Priscus divided his army into 
three square battalions, the better to face the enemy on 
all sides. He ordered them, moreover, not to use their 
arrows, but to come to close fight with their pikes and 
javelins. This first combat ended only with the daj. 



214 MODERN HISTORY. Part III. 

and the issue was favorable to the Romans ; for, whilst 
their loss did not amount to more than three hundred 
men, thej had killed four thousand of the Avari. 

The enem}'- did not appear for two days. On the 
morning of the third, Priscus drew up his army in the 
same order as before, but, during the contest, gradually 
extended its wings, so as to enclose the barbarians, who 
lost nine thousand men on that day. The ten following 
days passed without any new engagement. Priscus, 
animated by his first success, and seeing the Avari at a 
stand, went forward to provoke them a third time to 
battle. He posted his troops on the declivity of a hill 
at the bottom of which there was a lake. The Romans 
rushed upon the barbarians with such fury, and drove 
them towards the lake with such irresistible force, that 
fifteen thousand of them were put to the sword, or per- 
ished in the water. Of this number were the four sons 
of the Kan (chief of the Avari); and the Kan himself 
was, for some moments, in great danger which he escaped 
only by a precipitate flight. 

Priscus, having let his troops take some repose, went 
in search of the Avari, and fought them in a fourth and 
equally successful battle which obliged the vanquished 
to retreat beyond the river Teissa. The conqueror sent 
four thousand men to observe them, and examine their 
new position. This detachment found in a certain borough 
a great multitude of Gepidas, subjects of the Avarian nation, 
who had just come to celebrate one of their solemn feasts. 
These barbarians, not being informed of the issue of the 
last battle, were enjoying themselves at table during the 
night, particularly in drinking. The Romans arrived just 
at that time, and easily slew thirty thousand of them ; 
they then returned, loaded with booty, to their camp on 
the other side of the river. 

Twenty days more having elapsed, the Kan, at the 
head of a considerable force, recrossed the Teissa, and 
challenged the Romans to a fifth battle. His obstinate 



A. D. 582-602. 



MAURITIUS. 215 



resolution was still of no avail, and this victory of 
Priscus crowned the success of his glorious campaign, 
which had not lasted more than two months. The 
numerous army of the Avari was either cut to pieces or 
drowned in the river. There remained only about seven- 
teen thousand men, many of whom were taken prisoners ; 
but, shortly after, the Kan had the good fortune to reco- 
ver them by a stratagem, and with them repaired, in some 
measure, the great losses of his nation. 

It was just the reverse with the Greek emperor, whose 
political career, so successful in the beginning, ended in 
a bloody tragedy of which he and all his family were the 
victims. During one of the preceding campaigns, the 
Avari had taken twelve thousand Roman prisoners, whom 
Mauritius refused to redeem, though but a trifling sum 
was asked for their ransom ; and this refusal so enraged 
the barbarians, that they put them all to the sword. The 
emperor then began to be stung with remorse, gave large 
alms, and prayed that God would rather punish him in 
this life, than in the next. His prayer was heard, and 
he himself unknowingly prepared the way for its accom- 
plishment. 

The late conduct of this prince with regard to the 
prisoners, had already provoked loud complaints against 
him, when, in the year 602, he ordered the troops on the 
frontier to take up their quarters in the enemy's country, 
and to subsist there by plunder during winter. The sol- 
diers exasperated at this command, chose one Phocas, a 
daring, ambitious man, for their leader, and marched 
to Constantinople, where he was crowned emperor. 
Mauritius endeavored to make his escape, and passed 
indeed to the opposite shore, but was overtaken with his 
family. His five sons were slain before his eyes, at 
Chalcedon, whilst he repeated these words of the Royal 
Prophet : Thou art just, O Lord : and thy judgment is 
right.* When the nurse offered her own child instead 

* Ps. cxviii, 137. 



216 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part III. 



<5f his youngest, he would not suffer it. Last of all, he 
himself was massacred, and, after having shown himself 
a great general and an emperor of some ability, appeared 
in his last moments a true and magnanimous hero. He 
had held the sceptre twenty, and lived sixty-three years. 

During his reign, an inundation took place in Italy, 
Vv^hich was deemed the most surprising and destructive 
that had ever happened since the deluge. All the rivers 
overflowed, and spread devastation throughout the whole 
country. The plains were covered with such a quantity 
of water, as to present the spectacle of a vast sea, upon 
whose surface the wrecks of farms, the timber of houses, 
the dead bodies of men and animals, were floating on 
every side, as in a general shipwreck. The Tiber was 
so high, that it filled the streets of Rome, destroyed 
many buildings, and left uncovered only the seven famous 
hills of the city, which then appeared as so many islands. 
The rapid stream carried along with it an incredible 
multitude of serpents, among which there was seen one 
of an enormous size. Being all hurried away into the 
sea, they perished, and were thrown up by the waves 
upon the beach. In fine, this deluge was accompanied 
by frightful storms, thunder and lightnings, and followed 
by a pestilence which swept off vast numbers of inhab- 
itants. 

In the midst of these calamities, St. Gregory the Great 
was, notwithstanding his modest reluctance, raised to the 
chair of St. Peter, which he occupied fourteen years 
(590 — 604). During that period he constantly acted the 
part of a wise, enlightened, virtuous and holy pontiff", as 
all contemporary monuments testify.* This great pope 

* This being a notorious fact, to which all contemporary documents 
bear ample testimony, plainly demonstrates how unjust and absurd are 
the charges of bigoted zeal, ambition, flattery towards princes, Stc. 
brought forward by Hume and other infidels against St. Gregory. 

Equally unfounded and ridiculous is the accusation of his having 
destroyed the books and other monuments of ancient literature in 
Rome. This work of destruction is not only well accounted for by the 
multiplied ravages of the barbarians, but, even in the opinion of Bayle 



A. J). 602—610. 



PHOCAS. 217 



arrested the progress of the plague bj his prayers; in- 
structed emperors, and at the same time inculcated the 
obligation of true obedience in their regard ; consoled 
and strengthened Africa; confirmed in the true faith the 
Visigoths of Spain, lately converted from Arianism with 
their King Recared ; sent to England the glad tidings of 
the gospel ; reformed discipline in France ; subdued the 
fierce temper of the Lombards ; saved Rome and Italy, 
which the emperors were unable to assist; checked tlie 
growing pride of the patriarchs of Constantinople ; en- 
lightened the whole church by his doctrine ; governed 
the East and West with equal vigor and humility, and 
afforded to the world a perfect model of Ecclesiastical 
government. 



PHOCAS.— A. D. 602—610. 

Mauritius and his guiltless offspring being inhumanly 
cut off, Phocas, the leader of the rebellion, the personifi- 
cation of intemperance and cruelty, appeared in secure 
possession of the supreme power in Constantinople. But 
Chosroes, the politic king of Persia, with sentiments of 
seeming indignation at the murder of his kind benefactor 
and ally, loudly exclaimed against the assassin on the 
throne, and threatened revenge. A still stronger motive, 
his own interest, induced him to declare war against the 
tyrant Phocas. With numerous troops, he passed the 
Roman boundary, and, meeting with no resistance, quickly, 
overran Mesopotamia and Syria. Phocas, who had re- 
nounced the profession of a soldier, without assuming the 
character of a prince, remained inactive, and beheld with 

and Barbeyrac, two authors little suspected of partiality in favor of the 
popes ; not one single good proof can be adduced that St. Gregory ever 
attempted to do so ; except perhaps with regard to books of sorcery and 
judiciary astrology. This St. Paul himself did, as recorded in Acts 
Apost., xix, 19. All this has been candidly acknowledged by Roscoe, 
in his History of Leo the Tenth, vol. i, ch. i, p. .53, \^'here he praises 
" the beneficence, candor and pastoral attention of Gregory I, — unjustly 
charged," he adds, " with being the adversary of liberal studies." 

19 



218 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part III. 



indifference the ravages of his dominions. He suffered 
Chosroes to gratify his revenge or ambition without a 
check, and exclusively employed himself in shedding the 
blood of the worthiest men of the state, and gratifying 
his unruly passions. His own relatives, and the senate 
of Constantinople, seeing nothing done for the preserva- 
tion of the empire, secretly requested Heraclius, the 
governor of Africa, to come to their assistance, assuring 
him that the purple would be the reward of his services. 
Age had extinguished the last spark of ambition in the 
breast of Heraclius ; but he took all proper means to 
secure the crown for his son. The young Heraclius boldly 
embarked in the hazardous enterprise, put a select body 
of troops on board the vessels that were ready for sea, set 
sail, and nearly reached Constantinople, before Phocas 
had the least suspicion of his rival's approach. After a 
sharp contest at sea, Heraclius forced the entrance of the 
harbor. In the meantime, the tyrant destitute of friends, 
was seized by a private enemy, and conveyed on board 
the galley of the conqueror, who first reproached him for 
his atrocious crimes, then ordered his head to be struck 
off and his body to be burned. Heraclius was imme- 
diately proclaimed emperor (a. d. 610). 

HERACLIUS.— A. D. 610—628. 

By this time, the empire was in a most deplorable con- 
dition. On one hand, the public treasury was drained; 
there were hardly any troops to defend the frontiers, and 
not one good general at their head, the ablest officers 
having either fallen in battle or perished by the sword of 
the tyrant. On the other hand, the Avari were recom- 
mencing tlieir inroads in the West, and the Persians 
continuing the work of depredation throughout the whole 
East. In four successful campaigns, from the year 611 
to 615, they subdued Mesopotamia, Cappadocia, Syria 
and Palestine, plundered the cities of Edessa, Caesarea, 



A.D. 610—628. 



HERACLIUS. 219 



Antioch, Damascus, Jerusalem, etc., and carrying ofFinnu- 
merable captives, together with an immense booty, left 
those unfortunate regions covered with blood, ruins and 
ashes. 

In pursuit of new victories, the Persians then marched 
into Egypt, took the wealthy city of Alexandria, and de- 
solated the whole country around ; while another army 
advanced through Pontus and Asia Minor as far as the 
Straits of Constantinople. Unprepared, and unable to 
resist so powerful a force, Heraclius begged peace of 
Chosroes with suppliant intreaties, and even on the 
humiliating terms of purchasing it by an annual tribute. 
The haughty monarch rejected the proposal with scorn. 
Putting the ambassadors in chains, he swore that he would 
spare neither the emperor nor his subjects, unless they 
would abjure their crucified God, and, like the Persians, 
adopt the worship of the sun. 

In this desperate state of affairs, Heraclius thought of 
abandoning Constantinople, and transferring to Carthage 
the seat of the empire. Rising however from that des- 
pondency and lethargy in which he seemed to be plunged, 
he took at length the generous determination of putting 
himself at the head of his shattered troops, and to run 
with them all the hazards of so perilous a war. Being 
once roused to action, nothing appeared in him but hero- 
ism. He spent one year in preparing his soldiers, and 
inspiring them with his own ardor and intrepidity, his 
design being, from the very first step, to remove the seat 
of war into Persia, and thereby oblige the infidels to re- 
turn home for the defence of their country. Not to leave 
any enemies behind, he concluded a truce with the Avari, 
who had lately attacked him on the side of Thrace, and 
in the year 622, the twelfth of his reign, began his march 
towards Persia, immediately after easter. 

Before the expiration of the same year, Heraclius began 
to reap the fruit of his efforts, by defeating the Persians 
in Armenia. This first success turned for ever the scale 



220 MODERN HISTORY 



Part III. 



of fortune. The Romans, so much dispirited before, but 
now under the conduct of a magnanimous prince, and 
animated by the example of his heroic valor, fearlessly 
entered the hostile territory, overthrowing, as they ad- 
vanced, whatever dared oppose their progress. Chosroes 
beheld, with impotent rage, all his armies conquered, his 
dominions laid waste, his cities and castles taken by 
storm, and himself compelled to fly, for safety, to more 
distant quarters. In the summer of 623, Heraclius took 
the important city of Ganzac or Tauris, and consigned a 
great part of it to the flames, especially a famous temple 
dedicated to heathen worship, and the palace of Chosroes, 
in which there was a rich statue of this proud monarch, 
under a dome which represented the heavens with the 
sun, moon and stars, and round about it angels holding 
sceptres in their hands in honor of Chosroes, with ma- 
chinery intended to produce effects resembling storms and 
thunder. Leading back his army to take winter quarters 
in Albania, near the Caspian sea, the emperor was moved 
with compassion towards fifty thousand Persian captives 
whom he had brought with him, and dismissed them all, 
after having supplied them with the necessaries of life. 
This act of humanity so touched their hearts, as to make 
them pray with tears for his further success, and express 
their ardent desire that he might deliver Persia from a 
tyrant who, by his exactions and cruelty, was the de- 
stroyer of mankind. 

The campaigns of Heraclius in 624 and 625, were 
equally successful. He fought the numerous troops of 
the Persians in five or six battles, and was as many times 
victorious. In 626, Sarbar, one of the Persian generals, 
arrived with a powerful army before Chalcedon on the 
Asiatic bank of the Bosphorus, and was seconded by the 
perfidious Avari, who, having broken the truce, attacked 
Constantinople on the European side ; but they were re- 
pulsed both by land and sea, and Sarbar was likewise 
foiled in his attempts against Chalcedon. 



A. D. 610- 



HERACLIUS. 221 



On the twelfth of December, 627, HeracUus, almost 
without any loss on his side, gave the Persians an entire 
overthrow near the ruins of the ancient city of Ninivis. 
Razates, their general, was found among the slain, with 
his shield and cuirass of solid gold; and with him fell 
nearly all the officers and the greater part of the Persian 
army. The haughty Chosroes was now driven from town 
to town, and yet continued obstinately deaf to all propo- 
sals of peace. This obstinacy so exasperated his subjects 
against him, that even his nobles and generals revolted, 
with Siroes, his eldest son ; and, as the old king had just 
declared Medarses, another of his sons, his successor, 
Siroes seized on his father, bound him in chains, and threw 
him into a dungeon. There he was loaded with insults, 
allowed only a small quantity of bread and water for his 
sustenance, frequently shot at, and wounded with arrows, 
until he expired, on the fifth day of his confinement 
(a. d. 628). 

Thus, through a just judgment of God, Chosroes II 
perished by the hands of an unnatural son, after having 
himself obtained the throne by spilling the blood of his 
father Hormisdas, and filled not only his own kingdom, 
but all the East, with carnage and desolation, during a 
reign of thirty-five years. Siroes immediately entered 
upon a treaty of peace with HeracUus, restored the pro- 
vinces which the empire had lost, and released all the 
Roman prisoners. 

The emperor then returned in triumph to Constanti- 
nople, and made his entry in a chariot drawn by four ele- 
phants, amidst the shouts of multitudes. He afterwards 
applied himself to repair in the several provinces the evils 
caused by so disastrous a war, Persia in the meantime 
remaining a prey to an almost uninterrupted succession of 
bloody revolutions which followed the hasty death of Si- 
roes. Upon the whole, both nations were exceedingly 
weakened, and shortly after found themselves unable to 
resist with success a common and most formidable enemy, 
19* 



222 MODERN HISTORY 



Part III. 



who, issuing forth from the deserts of Arabia, was pre- 
paring at this very time to impose upon the whole East his 
yoke, his laws, and his new religion. 



RISE OF MAHOMETANISM.— (A. d. 622—632.) 

The author of this amazing revolution was Mahomet, 
or Mohamed, a descendent, through Tsmael, of the great 
Patriarch Abraham. That famous imposter is believed to 
have been born in the year 570, at Mecca, a town of 
Arabia. The first part of his life he spent in obscure 
employments, already cherishing however that unbounded 
ambition which was to burst with so much violence, and 
to produce such extensive effects. At the age of forty, 
he assumed the quality of a prophet; and supposing, con- 
trary to the divine promises, that the true worship of God 
existed no longer upon earth, boldly maintained that he 
was commissioned by heaven to restore the religion of 
Abraham, Moses and Jesus Christ, to its primitive purity, 
dreadfully disfigured, he said, by Christians, Jews and 
Idolaters. 

Upon this foundation Mahomet built his religious sys- 
tem, which is a monstrous compound of Judaism, Chris- 
tianity, old heresies, and his own fancies ; on one side, 
discarding all the mysteries of religion, on the other, con- 
tinually inculcating that *' God is God, and Mahomet is 
his prophet." Being subject to fits of epilepsy, he attri- 
buted them to the visits of the Archangel Gabriel, by 
whom he pretended he was taught, but whose presence he 
could not bear without trances and convulsions. As he 
knew neither how to read or write, it was only with the 
assistance of a Jewish Rabbin and of a Nestorian monk, 
that he compiled his Koran, or book of books, as he called 
it, and which, in reality, is nothing else than a most 
strange medley of some beautiful sentences and maxims 
taken from Holy Writ, and of nonsense, absurdities and 



A. D. 622-632. 



RISE OF MAHOMETANISM. 223 



ideas the most extravagant, without design or con- 
nexion, though expressed in a lofty and an animated 
style. 

It was a very favorable circumstance for the design of 
Mahomet, that he preached his doctrine first among Arabs 
and Saracens the most ignorant people perhaps then in 
the world. Still, instead of making much progress in 
the beginning, it rather met with powerful opposition at 
Mecca; so far, that the pretended prophet, seeing the 
danger which threatened his life, was obliged to depart 
from that town. This event happened in the year 622, 
and is famous among the Mahometans, who trace back to 
it the beginning of their era, under the name of hegira, 
or flight. 

Mahomet retired to Medina or Yatreb, another Arabian 
city, where he was received with great honors. He ob- 
tained there numerous proselytes, to whom he declared 
that he intended to establish his religion, not by the power 
of miracles, as the ancient prophets had done, but by the 
force and terror of arms.* To this first means of en- 
forcing conviction he added another equally successful 
with the generality of men, the enticement of sensual 
pleasures ; he himself setting the example of debauchery, 
as well as of ambition, enthusiasm and desperate courage. 
Having assembled a little army, chiefly consisting of 
thieves and fugitive slaves, he at first attacked the cara- 
vans that went through Arabia for the purposes of trade, 
and meeting with great success, he enriched his soldiers 
and enlarged his projects. He took the city of Mecca 
from which he had been compelled to flee, and thence 
carried the sword of destruction from one tribe to another, 
forcing all to embrace his religion, or pay him an annual 
tribute. Before his death (632), nearly the whole of 
Arabia was already subjugated. 

Such was the first result of the exertions of Mahomet ; 

* See Note E. 



224 MODERN HISTORY. Part III. 

and, since he had personally set the example to an enthu- 
siastic people, it is chiefly to him, as to its first cause, that 
we should refer the long course of victories gained, and 
of conquests made by his successors. It was he who 
changed some miserable tribes, until then confined to the 
deserts of Arabia, into armies of undaunted warriors, for 
whom the invasion of the whole world seemed to be too 
little. Of what efforts were not those men capable whose 
minds he had impressed with the dogma of absolute pre- 
destination, whose souls he had inflamed with all the 
ardor of religious fanaticism, and whom, in fine, he had 
taught to look upon themselves as strictly bound and most 
happy either to conquer or to die on the field of battle for 
the propagation of their sect ? 

The inexorable severity of Mahomet towards the van- 
quished, was another cause of the rapidity of his success, 
the terror which he spread abroad, frequently disarming 
those whom he threatened with war. His practice in de- 
claring it was, to propose the choice of one of three con- 
ditions, viz., the adoption of his religious system, or the 
payment of a tribute, or an appeal to the sword. They 
who agreed to the first, not only preserved their lives and 
property, but were even made partakers of all the privi- 
leges of Mussulmen. Those who consented to pay a 
tribute, were allowed to profess their own religion, pro- 
vided it was not gross idolatry. If they had courage to 
fight, no quarter was granted to them ; only the women, old 
people and children were spared, and reduced to slavery. 
This terrible mode of proceeding continued for many 
years, and was abandoned only when the Mahometan 
power, being solidly established, had nothing to fear from 
its enemies. 

The followers of Mahomet are called Mahometans irom. 
his own name ; — Mussulmen, or Moslem, which means 
faithful, the word by which they designate their religion 
being Islam, submission and obe die Jice to God ; — sometimes 
Arabs, from their parent country ; — and more frequently 



A. D. 632-639. SARACENS IN SYRIA, ETC. 225 

Saracens, from one of the principal tribes that first em- 
braced Mahometanism. As to the chiefs of this new 
religion and empire, they took the name of Caliphs, or 
vicars of the prophet ; and sometimes also, the title of 
Emir al moumenin or Miramolin, which signifies prince, 
or commander of the faithful. 



PROGRESS OF MAHOMETANISM. 

COXQUESTS OF THE SARACENS IN SYRIA, PALESTINE AND MESOPO- 
TAMIA.— A. D. 632—639. 



Mahomet having left no male issue, it was natural to 
expect that the titles and power he had enjoyed, should be 
transferred to Ali, his cousin, son-in-law, and designated 
heir. Still, the suffrages of the nation were for Abu-Beker, 
Mahomet's father-in-law, a man of great repute among the 
Arabs, and to whom, more than to any one else, Islamism 
was indebted for the popularity it had acquired. More- 
over he was powerfully supported by the most influential 
chieftains of the Mussulmen, Omar and Othman, who pre- 
ferred by far to see the dignity of caliph, to which they 
themselves aspired, intrusted to a man sixty years old, 
the age of Abu-Beker, rather than to Ali, a young man, 
who, having, according to the ordinary course of nature, 
the prospect of a long life, would likely prevent them 
from ever becoming caliphs. 

Abu-Beker therefore was elected, and immediately took 
the census of his subjects. Having found one hundred 
and twenty-four thousand Mussulmen, he did not doubt 
but that he might, with these forces, undertake and exe- 
cute great projects. After quelling some seditions among 
the Arabs, and driving the Persians from the ancient 
Chaldea, he raised three armies for the invasion of Syria, 
under the command of three valiant chieftains, Kaled, 
Abu-Obeyda and Amrou. Their first attack was directed 
against the frontier towns, Bostra, Palmyra, and some 



226 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part III. 



others, which were easily conquered. Kaled, who was 
the commander in chief, then went, at the head of fifty 
thousand men, to lay siege to the important city of Da- 
mascus. Neither the courage of the citizens and garrison, 
nor the exertions of the troops sent to their assistance, 
could save the town from the hands of the infidels. It 
was taken by them at the end of six months, and most of 
its brave inhabitants were inhumanly slaughtered, by the 
order of Kaled. This happened on the SOth of August 
(&34), and was the last event of the reign of Abu-Beker, 
who died on that very day, at the age of sixty-three years, 
after having appointed Omar his successor. 

The death of one caliph and the accession of another 
made no alteration in the plans, and put no hindrance to 
the progress of the Saracens. The only change that arose 
was, that Abu Obeyda received the chief command of 
their troops, in the place of Kaled whose temper was too 
violent and sanguinary. This terrible, but truly mag- 
nanimous warrior, descended without a murmur to an 
inferior rank, and declared that this circumstance would 
bv no means prevent him from making the utmost exer- 
tions for the public welfare. Such was the heroic spirit 
of the Arabs of that period : religious enthusiasm raised 
their minds above the ordinary feelings of nature, and 
kept them ever ready to sacrifice their private interests 
and personal views on the altar of patriotism. However, 
as Kaled possessed surprising activity, and great talents 
for war, he continued, under Abu -Obeyda, to direct the 
operations of the army, and this good understanding of 
the two generals greatly facilitated their success. 

In the meantime, the Greeks and the Syrians, roused 
by their extreme danger, opposed in different parts of the 
invaded country, a formidable resistance which cost the 
lives of many Saracens, particularly in the neighborhood 
of fortified places whose garrisons frequently made vigor- 
ous and successful sallies. Heraclius also was exerting 
himself in taking measures to preserve Syria. Having 



A. D. 632-639. 



SARACENS IN SYRIA, ETC. 227 



raised a numerous army, he placed it under the command 
of a general named Manuel, who immediately went in 
search of the Saracens. It did not take him long to find 
them ; at the news of his approach, Obeyda and Kaled 
had assembled their forces, and stationed them on the 
banks of a river near the city of Yarmouth. On that spot 
the furious and bloody engagement took place, which 
almost annihilated the Roman power in those provinces. 
During the battle, which lasted several days, women 
seemed to vie with men for the prize of courage. On the 
first day, the Greeks animated equally by despair and by 
the superiority of their numbers, three times put the 
Saracens to flight, and three times the fugitives returned 
to the field, spurred on by the railleries of their wives, 
who were placed at the rear with the great standard of 
Mahomet. Not less sharp and obstinate was the fight of 
the following day. At last, the Christians being not only 
harassed, but also betrayed, were entirely defeated, and 
lost more than a hundred thousand men, many of whom 
fell by the exterminating sword of the Arabs ; some 
perished in the river ; and others were taken prisoners. 
The conquerors seized the occasion of improving their 
victory, by the pursuit of the vanquished, and by the 
capture of those places in Syria and Palestine, which 
had until then sided with the empire. Jerusalem, in 
particular, was the grand object of their views. Mahomet 
had always professed a peculiar veneration for that holy 
city, and transmitted that veneration to his followers, 
who ardently desired to have the town in their posses- 
sion. Accordingly, only one month after the battle of 
Yarmouth, Omar sent to his generals an order to march 
into Palestine and attack Jerusalem. The city, though 
destitute of all hope of assistance from Heraclius, re- 
sisted during several months all the efforts of the enemy, 
but was in the end compelled to surrender. The caliph 
went himself from Arabia to treat of the capitulation, 
granted mild conditions to the inhabitants, and solemnly 



228 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part III. 



took possession of the town, in May, 637. Aleppo, An- 
tioch, Tyre, Caesarea, etc. fell also about the same time 
under the power of the victorious Arabs, and the conquest 
of Syria and Palestine was completed by them in the 
space of six years. 

The conquest of Mesopotamia cost them still less time 
and fatigue. One year was sufficient to subdue that 
country for which the Romans and Persians had fought 
during, many centuries. Edessa, Nisibis, and other 
towns, so famous in antiquity for the glory of their arms, 
as well as for the flourishing state of Christianity within 
their walls, scarcely dared make any resistance, and 
submitted to the Mahometan yoke. 

All this happened during the reign of Heraclius, who 
was now disgracing by indolence the glory which he had 
formerly acquired, and who seemed to have lived, merely 
to behold the loss of his finest provinces. He died in the 
year 641, the thirty-first of his reign, and sixty-seventh 
of his age, leaving the Greek empire in a condition nearly 
as deplorable as that from which he had rescued it some 
vears before. After him, Constantine Heraclius and 
Heracleonas, his sons, occupied the throne ten months 
only, and Constant II, his grand-son, who occupied it 
twenty-seven years, did little else than persecute the 
church and tyrannize over his subjects. 

CONQUESTS OF THE SARACENS IN EGYPT— a. d. 639—644. 

Sovereigns of this description were certainly incapable 
of checking the progress of the Saracens, whose armies 
had already penetrated into Egypt. The leader of their 
forces in that envied country, was Amrou, a brave gene- 
ral, who has been already mentioned. Uniting wisdom 
and prudence with intrepidity, he first took different 
towns either by capitulation or surprise, and at length 
appeared in sight of the populous and wealthy city of 
Alexandria. 



A. P. 639—644. 



SARACENS IN EGYPT. 229 



Like other great generals, Amrou trusted to no one 
but himself for the precautions and measures to be taken 
in war. In order then to become well acquainted with 
the position and strength of the town, he himself went to 
examine its outworks, accompanied only by a slave called 
Verdan, and Mulisma, one of his chief officers. Having 
approached too near the wall, they were apprehended, 
and brought before the governor of the place, who asked 
them upon what grounds the Mahometans had come to 
attack Alexandria. Amrou replied that their view was, 
either to make the Greeks embrace the religion of Ma- 
homet, or compel them, sword in hand, to pay an annual 
tribute to the caliph. 

So bold an answer led the governor to believe that the 
man who gave it was certainly the general of the Saracen 
troops. *' This is Amrou himself," said he to his officers ; 
" let him be beheaded." Verdan, who understood Greek, 
seeing the imminent danger of his master, turned to him, 
and giving him a violent blow, said in an angry tone : 
"Why do you, who are the last of the Mussulmen, take 
upon yourself to answer.^ Let your superiors speak." 
Then Mulisma, raising his voice, said that the general of 
the Mahometans, desirous to treat with the governor, had 
sent them to demand an interview; and, if the Greeks 
were disposed to offer or accept reasonable conditions, 
peace would be soon concluded. 

This stratagem had the desired effect. The governor, 
believing now that he had been mistaken about these 
men, dismissed them unmolested ; but, instead of the 
proposed interview, Amrou, on the following day, showed 
himself with his whole army near the walls of Alexan- 
dria, and immediately commenced the siege (a. d. 640). 

It lasted fourteen months, during which the Saracens 
lost twenty-three thousand men, who were slain either in 
different assaults or in the frequent sallies made by the 
garrison. At last, they took the city by storm, and put- 
ting to the sword many of its brave defenders, drove the 
20 



230 MODERN HISTORY. 



Pan III. 



others into the country, whither they were pursued by 
Amrou. Still, many of them had time to embark in 
the vessels which they found in the harbor. They soon 
returned, re-entered the city, and slew all the Sara- 
cens whom Amrou had left there. At this melancholy 
news, he hastened back with his troops, and finding the 
Greeks already in possession of the fortress, attacked 
them without delay, and, notwithstanding their vigorous 
resistance, drove them from this their last retreat. Those 
who escaped the destructive sword of the conquerors, 
re-embarked with precipitancy, and abandoned to the 
Saracens this powerful city which had been so long the 
great store-house, as it were, of Rome and Constantino- 
ple, the honor of the empire, and the centre of commerce 
in the East. It lost then these noble prerogatives, and 
the whole province passed with it under the Mussulman 
sway. 

At this time also, literature suffered an irreparable loss 
by the conflagration of the Alexandrian library which 
contained upwards of five hundred thousand volumes. 
Amrou sent deputies to consult with the Caliph, and ask 
him what was to be done with so many books. Omar 
answered that, being useless if they agreed with the 
Koran, and dangerous if they differed from it, in either 
case they were to be destroyed. The Mussulman gene- 
ral, who was not less moderate after victory than intrepid 
in battle, punctually, but reluctantly, obeyed the order. 
The books were distributed throughout the various quar- 
ters of the city, and served, it is said, to warm the public 
baths during six months. 

No sooner was Egypt entirely subdued, than Amrou, 
proceeding farther west, carried his victorious arms into 
Lybia, and would have made still greater progress, had 
not the death of Omar occasioned his return. This 
caliph was murdered at Medina, in 644, by a Persian 
slave, to whose complaints against his master he had re- 
fused to listen. Othman was immediately chosen to sue- 



A. D. 632—656. 



ETC. 231 



ceed him. The death of Omar created deep affliction in 
the heart of every true Mussulman. Of all the caliphs, 
he is, to this day, the most revered among the Mahome- 
tans, at least those called Sunnites (p. 235), as having 
contributed most to the increase of their civil and reli- 
gious power. In fact, according to an ancient historian, 
he conquered, within the space of ten years and a half, 
thirty-six thousand towers or fortresses. Syria, Mesopo- 
tamia, nearly all Persia, Egypt and Lybia, were subdued 
by his generals ; and, what is still more surprising, these 
conquests were not less secure and permanent, than they 
had been rapid and extensive, owing to the wisdom and 
firmness with which the caliph governed — his staff, to use 
the expression of the Arabs, being more respected than 
the sword of his successors. 

This wonderful success of Omar's administration pro- 
duced no change in his morals, no alteration in his man- 
ner of life, which was quite plain and even austere. 
Careless about his own ease, he every Friday distributed 
the money of the treasury to the poor, according to the 
wants of every individual. Historians highly praise also 
his love of justice, though they admit that he sometimes 
carried it to an excess bordering on cruelty, and that he 
was not always faithful to his promises. 



CONQUESTS OF THE SARACENS IN PERSIA, RHODES 
AND OTHER COUNTRIES.— a. d. 632—656. 

Othman completed the subjugation of Persia, which 
had been commenced under Abu-Beker, and vigorously 
prosecuted under Omar. This kingdom was, in conse- 
quence of its frequent revolutions and the victories of 
Heraclius, nearly shorn of its strength ; and Isdegerdes 
III, who, in 632, ascended the throne at the age of fifteen 
years, was too young to defend it with success against 
the repeated attacks of the Mussulmen. At the same 
time that they invaded Syria, thirty thousand of their 



232 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part in. 



warriors carried the sword of destruction to the banks of 
the Euphrates and Tigris. Thej were commanded, in 
this first period of their progress, by Saad, one of the 
heroes of the Saracens, who achieved in Persia exploits 
equal to those of Kaled in Syria, and of Amrou in 
Egypt. The Persians, on their side, like the Syrians and 
the Greeks, roused themselves to a new exertion of that 
courage which they had so frequently displayed in former 
and better times. They made incredible efforts to avert 
the storm and secure their independence ; nor could the 
Saracens truly look upon themselves as the conquerors 
and masters of Persia, as long as there were inhabitants 
to defend it against invasion. 

No later than the year 636, a tremendous battle was 
fought near the town of Cadesia between the Mussulman 
troops commanded by Saad, and a Persian army amount- 
ing to one hundred and twenty thousand men, under the 
command of Rostan, the bravest of their generals. This 
battle, which is as famous among oriental nations as that 
of Arbela between Alexander and Darius (b. c. 331), was 
continued three days, with the utmost fury on both sides. 
The Saracens lost nearly eight thousand, and the Persians, 
upwards of sixty thousand men ; Isdegerdes was obliged 
to fly to the remotest parts of his kingdom, where he 
hoped he would be better able to muster new forces. 

The Mussulmen, before pursuing him, marched to 
Ctesiphon, or Modin, the capital city of Persia, and took 
it at the first onset. They found in it immense treasures 
and effects of inestimable value, the pillage of which 
enriched them, and, by a necessary consequence, made 
them lose the noble simplicity and plainness of their ances- 
tors. Still, their warlike and enthusiastic spirit was ever 
the same, as clearly appeared when Saad, a few months 
after the capture of Modin, received from the caliph an 
order to go forward in pursuit of Isdegerdes. This in- 
trepid general, with an ardor not to be surpassed, led his 
troops through the deserts and mountains of Persia, from 



A. D. 632—656. 



ETC. 233 



one extremity to the other of this vast empire. Having 
overtaken the king at Gialola, in the province of Korasan, 
he gained over him a second victory as bloody and deci- 
sive as that of Cadesia. The unfortunate monarch was 
driven entirely from his dominions, and forced to apply 
for refuge and assistance to the petty neighboring tribes. 

A third battle gave the deadly blow to the Persian 
monarchy. Rostan, summoning all who could bear arms, 
raised another very numerous army, v/ith which he de- 
termined to make a last and desperate eftort for the sup- 
port of their tottering empire. Nooman, at that time 
commander of the Saracens, in the place of Saad who 
was engaged in subduing important provinces, did not 
avoid the battle. It took place near Nahavend, and was 
for a long time disputed with incredible animosity and 
valor. Nooman perished in the conflict, and the Saracens 
were about to abandon the field, when Hodaifa, a brave 
officer, revived their courage, and rushing at their head 
against the enemy, so broke his ranks, and made such a 
slaughter, as to gain at last a decided and most signal 
advantage, which the Arabs call the victory of victories. 

From this time forward, the Persians did not venture 
to appear any more in the open field ; cities every where 
opened their gates to the conquerors, a very few only 
having dared to make any show of resistance. It was in 
vain that Isdegerdes once more endeavored to retrieve 
his losses ; his last troops were easily overthrown, and he 
himself, overtaken in his flight, was put to death by 
perfidious auxiliaries. Thus ended the second Persian 
empire (a. d. 651), after having lasted four hundred and 
twenty-five years from its restoration in 226. The Ara- 
bian power was now fully established in that kingdom, 
and the surviving population adopted the religion of 
Mahomet. 

About the same time, the Saracens made other con- 
quests in various countries, but neither so secure nor so 
important. The reduction of the island of Cyprus was 
20* 



234 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part III. 



but momentary, being shortly after reconquered by the 
Christians. Nearly the same happened to Armenia ; but 
Nubia, in the south of Egypt, was rendered tributary, 
and the conquest of the island of Rhodes proved more 
lasting. Moaviah, a brave and skilful general, entirely 
subdued it in 653. The famous Colossus, or brazen 
statue of the sun, which the Rhodians had erected (b. c. 
about 300), after their deliverance from a powerful enemy 
(Demetrius Poliorcetes), was still lying on the ground. 
It vras at least one hundred and five feet high, its other 
dimensions being in proportion : each finger was larger 
than a man of ordinary size; and being placed at the 
entrance of the harbor upon two opposite rocks which 
served as pedestals, ships could pass without difficulty 
between the feet of the statue. It was thrown down by 
an earthquake, after having stood fifty-six years ; and it 
remained upon the shore for about nine centuries, when 
the Saracens, then masters of the island, sold the broken 
parts of the Colossus to a Jewish merchant, who loaded 
with them nine hundred camels : this supposes the whole 
weight to have been seven hundred and twenty-thousand 
pounds. 

DISSENSIONS AMONG THE SARACENS.— a. d. 656— 66S. 

The progress of the Saracens in Asia was now checked 
for a time by various obstacles, the greatest of which 
arose from among themselves. It was occasioned by the 
death of Caliph Othman, wlio, having provoked general 
discontent by the haughtiness of his deportment, and his 
partiality for his relatives upon whom he blindly lavished 
the dignities and treasures of the state, fell by the swords 
of assassins at the age of eighty-two years (a. d. 656). 
The right of succeeding him was claimed simultaneoush' 
by Ali, the son-in-law of Mahomet, and by Moaviah, the 
conqueror of Rhodes. A civil war ensued, which, though 
bloody, left the question undecided, till Ali, being mur- 



». 668—685. 



ETC. 235 



dered in 661 by a certain fanatic of his own party, and 
his son Assan dying after the lapse of some years, Moa- 
viah remained sole and undisputed master. He chose 
Damascus for his residence, and was the head of the 
Ommiade dynasty, which reigned over the Saracens 
ninety-two years. 

But, although Moaviah succeeded in uniting under his 
sway all the parts of their empire, the hatred of the two 
parties did not abate : founded, not only on the difference 
of political pretensions, but also on the disagreement of 
religious doctrines, it continued to subsist, and has con- 
tinued almost to this day the cause of frequent and 
bloody wars between the Persians who adhere to the sect 
of AH, and the Turks who are followers of Omar and 
Moaviah. The preference given to Abu-Beker over Ali 
(see p. 225), is commonly assigned as the origin of 
this lasting animosity. According to the Persians, Ali 
was the lawful successor of Mahomet, and the three first 
caliphs were mere usurpers, as well as the Ommiades, 
who reigned after them to the detriment of the Fatimites, 
or offspring of Ali by his wife Fatime, Mahomet's daugh- 
ter. The Turks, on the contrary, call themselves Sun- 
nites, or orthodox, attached to the traditions of their 
Mahometan ancestors, and give to the Persians the name 
of Shyites, that is to say, schismatics and sectarians. 

PROSPERITY OF THE GREEK EMPIRE UNDER CONST AN- 
TINE-POGONATUS, a. d. 668—685. 

Another great obstacle which the Mussulmen of the 
seventh century found in their career of invasion, was the 
superior ability of the Greek emperor, Constantine IV, 
or Pogonatus. No sooner had his father, Constant II, 
been slain by his own servants (a. d. 668), than he seized, 
with a resolute hand, the helm of the state. He com- 
menced his reign by punishing the murderers of his father, 
and bringing to a speedy termination some dangerous sedi- 



236 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part III. 



tions. When he had succeeded in his attempt, he found 
a still better opportunity of manifesting the energies of 
his soul, in the defence of his capital city against the 
attacks of the Saracens. 

During seven years in succession (673-679), the nu- 
merous armies of Caliph Moaviah presented themselves 
before the walls of Constantinople, and battered them 
with all kinds of military engines ; but they were con- 
stantly repelled, and finally obliged to retreat. Their 
failure was owing to their want of prudence and expe- 
rience with regard to the attack of fortified places, inas- 
much as they retired every winter, and were afterwards 
obliged to recommence the siege, as if nothing had hitherto 
been done ; and also to the unwearied courage and activity 
which the emperor and his troops displayed all that time. 
Among the various means which they took to bafile the 
efforts of the enemy, none was of greater service to them 
than the Grecian fire, which had been lately invented by 
a Svrian named Callinicus. This man, having come from 
Heliopolis to Constantinople, carried thither the secret of 
that famous composition, which for many centuries ren- 
dered innumerable services to the Greeks in their dif- 
ferent wars. It was used for the first time, during this 
siege, and caused dreadful ravages among the Saracens. 
Burning even in water, and directing its blaze down- 
wards, that terrible fire consumed both men and ships, 
and even iron and stones, before it could be extinguished, 
for which purpose they were obliged to make use of 
sand or vinegar. 

The Mussulmen, unable to bear up against this mode of 
warfare, abandoned their undertaking, after it had already 
cost them a considerable part of their fleet and army. 
The remainder was not less unfortunate, when they at- 
tempted to retreat. All the vessels were, in consequence 
of a furious tempest, driven on shore, and broken against 
the rocks or swallowed up by the waves ; while the land 
soldiers, worn out with fatigue and afiiicted by a conta- 



D. 644-710. 



SARACENS IN AFRICA. 237 



gious disease, were quickly overtaken by tlie Greeks, and 
cut in pieces, to the number, it is said, of thirty thousand 
men. Other bodies of Mussulman troops were likewise 
entirely defeated by the Maronites, or inhabitants of 
mount Libanus. These multiplied losses induced Moaviah 
to sue for peace. It was granted on condition of an an- 
nual tribute; and Pogonatus had thus the honor of com- 
pelling the most powerful prince of that time to become 
a tributary of the empire. 

The state was beginning to recover its ancient splendor, 
when the Bulgarians, a barbarous nation, until then very 
little known, made settlements near Thrace on the banks 
of the Danube. Notwithstanding the wisdom of the mea- 
sures adopted by the emperor to drive them back, his army 
was vanquished, and he found himself obliged to conclude 
a treaty, not very honorable indeed, but necessary for 
the tranquillity of his subjects. He then applied, with 
great zeal and success, to restore the peace of the church, 
which had been greatly disturbed in the East by new 
heresies. This good, just and pious prince, died in the 
eighteenth year of a reign generally prosperous and glo- 
rious (a. d. 685). 

After his death, the court of Constantinople exhibited, 
during thirty years, an almost uninterrupted series of 
treasons and revolutions, which it would be equally dis- 
gusting and useless to relate. Civil wars were also car- 
ried on among the Saracens for the possession of the 
supreme power, until Abdel Malek, the fourth successor 
of Moaviah, by repeated victories, destroyed his competi- 
tors, prostrated their partisans, and was acknowledged 
sole caliph in 691. 

CONQUESTS OF THE SARACENS IN AFRICA.— a. d. 644-710. 

This event enabled the Arabs to resume their former 
course of proselytism and conquest ; not so much how- 
ever in the eastern part of the Greek empire, where they 



238 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part III. 



now suffered frequent defeats, as in other countries. 
Whilst some of their armies penetrated into India, others, 
taking the opposite direction, reached the western ex- 
tremity of the African shores. Yet this did not happen 
till after a long struggle and repeated efforts ; the subju- 
gation of Africa having been, of all their conquests in 
the civilized world, the most arduous and painful. Amrou 
had commenced it in the year 644 ; a second expedition 
was undertaken in 647 under Abdalla, his successor in 
the government of Egypt. With an army of forty thou- 
sand brave warriors, he advanced as far as Tripoli, a 
town advantageously situated on the coast of the Medi- 
terranean sea opposite to Sicily. For want of ships 
and engines of war, he could take neither that city nor 
another which he likewise attacked ; but in the following 
year, he signalized himself by a more brilliant expedition. 

At the approach of the Mussulman troops, the Patrician 
Gregory, who commanded in those parts, had assembled 
one hundred and twenty thousand men, either Greeks or 
natives, and inspired them with his own ardor for the de- 
fence of their country. He attacked the Saracens near 
Yakoube, and these enthusiastic adventurers, though far 
inferior in numbers, willingly accepted the offer of battle. 
Nothing indeed ever surpassed the animosity of the 
combatants on each side, nor was any battle ever con- 
ducted in a more singular manner. Every day, at the 
rising; of the sun, the two armies went forth from their 
camp, and fought valiantly until noon ; then, equally 
exhausted by excess of heat and fatigue, they retired, as 
it were, by common agreement, and disposed themselves 
to recommence the next morning. 

This was done for several days in succession, without 
any decided advantage for either party; till at last a 
stratagem of the Saracens rendered them completely vic- 
torious. By the advice of Zobeir, one of their most dis- 
tinguished officers, part of their troops remained in the 
camp, ready to march at the first signal, whilst the others, 



A. D. 644—710. 



SARACENS IN AFRICA. 239 



early in the morning, went forward against the enemy. 
The engagement, as usual, was terrible and obstinately 
disputed, Zobeir purposely prolonging the fight, in order 
to waste the strength of the Africans. At length the 
Saracens withdrew from the field, and laid aside their 
armor, as if to take some repose. The Africans also, 
worn out with fatigue and burnt by the sun, began to re- 
treat towards their camp. 

At this moment, the Saracen troops in reserve mounted 
their horses, and, with the indefatigable Zobeir at their 
head, bore down upon a wearied enemy. This unexpected 
attack every where spread terror and confusion among 
the Africans, who fled in every direction. Gregory, 
having; rallied some brave soldiers, endeavored, but in 
vain, to withstand the fury of the assailants: being 
pierced by a pike, he died on the spot which had been the 
theatre of his valor. After this, the fugitives were pur- 
sued with great slaughter, and the Saracens easily sub- 
dued all the country around, and obtained an immense 
booty. Still, as they had themselves suffered a great loss 
of men and horses, they did not, at this time, proceed 
farther, but, leaving garrisons in the places which they 
had conquered, returned to Egypt (a. d. 648). 

No other troops were directed against Africa for the 
space of seventeen years, namely until 665, when a brave 
general, called Moaviah, like the celebrated caliph by 
whom he was sent, gained another victory near Tripoli ; 
but it had no great effect with regard to the fate of those 
regions. 

In 670, a more spirited and effectual effort was made 
by Oucba, another general full of ardor and enthusiasm, 
who had just received orders from the caliph to complete 
the subjection of the whole coast along the Mediterra- 
nean sea. This intrepid and fanatic warrior quickly 
overran all that part of Africa included in his commis- 
sion. Every thing trembled at his approach, and yielded 
to his arms. Torrents of Christian blood were spilt in 



240 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part III. 



the places which he subdued, although, according to the 
rule laid down by Abu-Beker, he spared old people, 
women and children, and sent eighty thousand prisoners 
to Egypt. Not satisfied with depopulating the Roman 
provinces, he attacked and put to the sword the barba- 
rians of Mount Atlas, and, having at length reached the 
shores of the Atlantic, he spurred on his horse into the 
sea, and loudly expressed his regret that such a barrier 
should oppose his further progress. 

On his return, Oucba was guilty of great imprudence. 
Being too easily prompted to believe that the country was 
entirely conquered, he dismissed or scattered his forces, 
and kept only five thousand men with him. This rashness 
caused his ruin. There were still many towns occupied 
by the Roman troops, the rapidity of Oucba's course not 
having permitted him to attack them and drive them all 
from Africa. They assembled together with the natives, 
chose for their leader Kuscile, a Moorish prince greatly 
renowned for his courage and prudence, and marched 
against Oucba before he had time to collect his own 
troops. 

This undaunted man did not hesitate one instant to go 
and fight them with a handful of soldiers. Determined 
as he was to die rather than lost? his former glory, he met 
the confederates half way. When, at the head of his five 
thousand warriors, he was in sight of that army of a hun- 
dred thousand men, he broke in pieces the scabbard of his 
sword ; all his followers did the same, and then, with des- 
perate fury, fell upon the enemy, wishing only to sell their 
lives as dearly as possible. In fact, not one of them died 
until he had slain at least his first antagonist, whether 
Roman or Moor, and the combat lasted as long as there 
remained one Saracen alive. Oucba was found dead upon 
a heap of enemies whom his sword had despatched ; and 
the field of battle, which is to this day called the field 
of Oucba, still bears testimony to his intrepid valor. 

This loss of the Saracens prevented, for many years 



A. D. 644-710. SARACENS IN AFRICA. 241 

more, the entire reduction of Africa. A new attempt 
was made in 688 by Zuheir, another hero of Islamism not 
inferior to those already mentioned ; but, this undertaking, 
like the expedition of Oucba, although at first brilliantly 
successful, terminated, like the former, in the slaughter 
of Zuheir and of all his troops. 

Thus did northern Africa repeatedly baffle the measures 
and foil the efforts of its invaders. But its final over- 
throw was now at hand. No sooner had Abdel Malek 
prostrated his competitors and their partisans, than he 
directed his attention towards the achievement of this im- 
portant conquest, and raised for that purpose numerous 
armies, the command of which he entrusted to Hassan, 
then governor of Egypt. This general, equal in courage, 
and superior in skill and prudence, to his predecessors, 
instead of overrunning without any fixed object, the coun- 
try which he desired to conquer, marched directly to Car- 
thage its capital, and took it by storm (a. d. 697). He 
left a garrison there with every means of defence, but this 
energetic movement did not prevent the Romans from 
reconquering the city before the end of the same year. 
In the ensuing year (698), Hassan, after defeating them 
in a naval battle took Carthage a second time, and utterly 
destroyed that celebrated town, without any regard for 
its past glory or its prospects for the future. 

Thus was the death-blow given to Christianity and civil- 
ization in Africa. There was yet, it is true, some siiow 
of resistance on the part of the remaining Romans united 
with the Moors; but the persevering efforts of the Sara- 
cens overcame all obstacles ; and the whole region, from 
Egypt to the straits of Gadez, or Gibraltar, was finally 
subdued in the year 710, the sixty-sixth after the first 
attempt made by Amrou. The generality of the natives 
gradually embraced the Mahometan religion ; and north- 
ern Africa soon became the chief quarter from which the 
Saracens often issued forth to pillage the coasts of Italy 
and Sicily, and invade the rich provinces of Spain. 
21 



242 MODERN HISTORY. Part III. 



CONQUESTS OF THE SARACENS IN SPAIN.— a. d. 711—718. 

The Visigoths had possessed Spain during the space of 
two hundred and fifty years, when the imprudence of a 
prince and the treason of a subject overthrew their flour- 
ishing monarchy almost in a moment. King Roderic, 
shortly after his accession to the throne, dishonored by 
his immorality the family of Count Julian, one of the most 
distinguished of the nation. The exasperated nobleman, 
in order to avenge the insult, resolved to call in the Sara- 
cens of Africa. He conducted this fatal design with all 
the ardor, secrecy and animosity of which the spirit of 
revenge is capable ; and the greatest enemies of his religion 
and country were solicited by him to cross the straits 
with assurances of a powerful assistance (a. d. 711). 

This proposal was readily accepted, and Musa, the 
Saracen governor of Africa, sent an army composed of 
Arabs and Moors, under the command of Tarik, one of 
his ablest generals. Roderic had scarcely heard of the 
approach of the invaders, when he beheld them at the 
gates of his kingdom. He summoned the strength of the 
nation to attend him in the field, and raised an army of a 
hundred thousand men, many of whom unfortunately were 
rather effeminate citizens than true soldiers. The Sara- 
cens had scarcely one-third of that number, but nearly 
all of them were old warriors, accustomed to fight, hard- 
ened against fatigues, proud of the conquest of Africa, 
and eager in propagating the empire of the Koran by the 
effusion of Christian blood. 

The two armies met near Xeres in Andalusia, and being 
animated, one by the necessity of defending the national 
liberty and religion, the other by the love of glory and 
conquest, soon came to a furious engagement. The ani- 
mosity and obstinacy of the combatants made victory for 
a long time doubtful ; for, although the Gothic army was 
partly composed of a new and undisciplined militia, there 
was in it a sufficient number of brave soldiers to with- 



A. D. 711—718. 



SARACENS IN SPAIN. 243 



stand all the efforts of the Saracens, and the king himself 
gave such proofs of personal bravery, as could hardly have 
been expected in a man of his dissolute habits. All this 
raised among the Goths a cheering hope of the fortunate 
issue of the day in their favor, when a sudden treason 
caused victory to declare for their enemies. 

During the hottest part of the battle, two sons of King 
Vitiza whom Roderic had dethroned, joined the Arabs at 
the head of their partisans, and attacking their country- 
men in the flank, threw them into irremediable confusion. 
The Goths frightened by so strange an event, lost courage, 
and fled ; the king, after using his utmost exertions to 
rally the fugitives, was himself carried away by their 
multitudes, and disappeared ; nor was his fate ever ascer- 
tained with certainty. His horse having been found, with 
the royal crown and mantle, at a short distance from a 
neighboring river, it was generally supposed that the un- 
happy monarch had been drowned. 

This day, so fatal to his cause, was decisive in favor 
of the invaders, on account of the immense booty, and 
the great number of standards and prisoners that fell 
into their hands. From the slain among the conquerors, 
w^ho lost sixteen thousand, may be gathered the terrible 
slaughter of the vanquished. But the most certain as 
well as most important result of the battle of Xeres, was 
the downfall of the Gothic monarchy which disappeared 
with the last of its sovereigns. The Saracens easily dis- 
persed the remainder of its supporters, and directed their 
victorious course to such portions of Spain as they had 
not yet invaded. Musa, the African governor, arrived 
with new forces, and dividing them into three separate 
bodies, overran in a short time the whole peninsula 
from Gadez to the Pyrenees. The inhabitants were 
either put to the sword or made tributaries; the cities 
were destroyed, or compelled to submit to the Arabian 
yoke. 

In the northern part of Spain, however, a small number 



244 MODERN HISTORY. Part III. 

of Christians preserved their independence. Under the 
guidance of Pelagio and Alfonso, two generous princes of 
rojal descent, they retired from the invaded provinces to 
the remote and mountainous district of Asturias, where 
the conquerors at first perhaps disdained, and soon after 
were unable to attack them with success (a. d. 718). This 
was the beginning of the more recent kingdom of Spain, 
which gradually increased, but had to struggle for about 
eight hundred years, before it could recover its former 
extent by the entire overthrow of the Arabs and Moors 
in the Spanish peninsula. 



SARACENS DEFEATED IN THE EAST— LEO THE 
ISAURIAN.— A. D. 717—730. 

The Saracens had now, in the lapse of ninety years, 
achieved as many conquests, as the ancient Romans had 
done in seven or eight centuries; but the empire of the 
former was not settled upon so lasting and solid a founda- 
tion as that of the latter. Even at the time which imme- 
diately followed the subjection of Spain, the Mussulmen 
experienced signal defeats, whereby their power and 
glory were greatly impaired. Having a second time 
attacked Constantinople, both by land and sea, they were 
again repulsed, with the loss of more than one hundred 
and twenty thousand men who perished by famine, cold, 
pestilence, or the sword of the enemy. Their fleet also, 
consisting of about eighteen hundred ships, was utterly 
destroyed, either by the fury of storms, or the violence 
of the Grecian fire. Only five ships escaped to convey to 
Syria the news of that frightful disaster (a. d. 718). 

The emperor of Constantinople at this period, was Leo 
the Isaurian, a prince justly renowned for his military 
skill, which he admirably displayed during the siege of 
his capital. When he had delivered the empire from its 
enemies, he undertook a war of a very different nature, 
and much more worthy of a tyrant than of a wise sove- 



A. D. 731 752, oAn.jti.\^iiiX^k3 j^iiix- ^ka x jiix/j KTC. ^^O 

reign. Unwilling to comprehend that the veneration of 
images is only an inferior honor referred to the person 
whom they represent, he published a severe edict against 
the use of them in churches, as if it were an idolatrous 
practice; and thus gave rise to the sect of Iconoclasts, 
or image-breakers. 

In obedience to the emperor's orders, the holy pictures, 
and the images of Christ and of his Saints, were de- 
stroyed in many places, to the great scandal of the faith- 
ful, and not without much blood-shed and innumerable 
deeds of barbarous cruelty.* One of the most shocking, 
was the burning of the twelve learned and virtuous libra- 
rians, whom Leo had not been able to gain over to his 
party, together with the public library of Constantinople 
(a. d. 730). This persecution was carried on with the 
same and even greater violence by his successor, Con- 
stantine Copronymus, and continued to disturb both 
church and state till the year 787, when, in the seventli 
General Council,! the second of Nice, the relative honor 
paid to images was solemnly decided to be according to 
Scripture and to the practice and tradition of the primitive 
church, and vindicated from the charge of idolatry and 
superstition. 

SARACENS DEFEATED IN FRANCE.— CHARLES MARTEL, 
ETC.— A. D. 731—752. 

In the west of Europe, the Arabs and Moors, after the 
conquest of Spain, looked upon France with a jealous 
eye, and wished to bring it also under their power. The 
first attempts which they made to this effect, had but 
little success, being repeatedly defeated by the brave re- 

* See Theophanes' Chronography p. 339 ; — Anastasius, in Pap. Gre- 
gor. II;— Flemy, Hist. Eccles. b. 42, n. 5 ; — Lebeau, Hist, du Bas. Emp. 
b. 63, n. 50 etc. vol. 13, p. 357—363. 

t The filth General Council had been held under Justinian, in 553 ; 
the sixth, under Constantine Pogonatus, in 680, (both at Constantino- 
pie), for the purpose of condemning pernicious writings and doctrines 
connected with the Nestorian and fiutychian heresies. 

21* 



246 MODERN HISTORY. 



Pan in. 



sistance of Eudes, Duke of Aquitania. But, in 731, a 
new invasion took place, which threatened not only 
France, but likewise all Christendom. Four hundred 
thousand Saracens, having at their head Abderame, a 
renowned general, crossed the Pyrenees, and driving 
every thing before them, filled whole provinces with ter- 
ror and desolation. Their march every where exhibited 
one continued scene of conflagration, plunder, and blood- 
shed. They who had the good fortune to escape the ex- 
terminating sword of the enemy, were seen flying in all 
directions. Eudes, who attempted to check the career of 
the Saracens, was defeated, and forced to abandon his 
dukedom to the victorious barbarians. 

They then advanced, without further obstacle, as far 
as the river Loire, into the very heart of France, con- 
stantly marking their passage with the most frightful 
ravages. The French monarchy seemed to be on the 
brink of ruin ; every day added to its dangers ; but 
fortunately, it possessed at that time in the person of 
Duke Charles the greatest general of Christendom. 
This hero, who had been hitherto engaged in subduing 
the restless tribes of Germany, was no sooner informed 
of the progress of the Saracens, than he marched from 
the north with a choice body of thirty thousand warriors, 
and meeting the enemy between the cities of Poitiers 
and Tours, soon put an end to their triumphant and 
destructive course. 

Seven days were spent on each side in preparing for a 
general engagement. On the eighth day, the French, 
animated by the presence of their invincible leader, 
briskly charged the barbarians, and began to pierce the 
thickest battalions by the tre?nendous blows of their 
sabres and battle-axes. The Saracens sustained the at- 
tack with equal courage, and, though numbers of them 
fell dead, still vigorously resisted, by constantly opposing 
fresh troops to the impetuosity of the assailants. The 
battle was fought in this manner for several hours, during 



A. D. 751—752. 



ETC. 247 



which the Mussulman army was mowed down with unin- 
terrupted and frightful slaughter. Towards the close of 
the day, Abderame fell among the dead. Night sepa- 
rated the combatants, who retired to their respective 
camps, but with very different feelings — the French, 
with the consciousness of their advantage, the Arabs, in 
deep consternation. These fierce invaders, a short time 
before so proud of past success, but nov/ reduced to a 
small number, and sensible of their immense loss, availed 
themselves of the darkness to effect their retreat, and 
precipitately retraced their steps towards the Pyrenees. 

So great was the number of the Saracens who fell in 
the battle, that, according to many historians, it exceeded 
three hundred thousand, whereas the loss of the French 
scarcely amounted to fifteen hundred men. Hence the 
defeat of the former is considered by all as one of the 
most signal that ever happened, and the victory of the 
latter as one of the most complete, important and deci- 
sive ever gained, as it was thought to have saved, not 
only France, but all Europe from the yoke of barbarism 
and infidelity. It is also commonly believed that this 
was the day on which Charles acquired the surname of 
Martel (hammer), because, like a hammer, he had broken 
to pieces the weapons and crushed the power of the Sara- 
cens (a. d. 732). 

This great man continued to conquer all his enemies, 
and to govern France, as he had done before, with sove- 
reign authority under the title of duke. There still ex- 
isted kings and princes of the family of Clovis; but they 
were generally weak and indolent, abandoning the cares 
of government to their prime-ministers. Pepin the Shorty 
who in 741 inherited the power and great qualities of his 
father Charles, thought of taking the last step towards 
the throne. This appeared so much the easier, as exist- 
ing circumstances seemed to favor the execution of his 
project; on the one hand, the mode of succession of the 
last kings, which had bordered on the elective, and the 



248 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part Til. 



inability of the present sovereign, Childeric III, con- 
trasted with his own transcendent merit ; and on the 
other, the wishes of the French people, and the favorable, 
though very prudent answer of Pope Zachary, who was 
consulted on the subject, emboldened him to prosecute 
his design.* 

Pepin therefore took his final resolution, and was pro- 
claimed king in a general assembly of the nation (a. d. 
752), Childeric having been in the mean time removed to 
a monastery, where he died three years after. In this 
prince ended the dynasty of the Merovingian sovereigns, 
after having occupied the French throne about three hun- 
dred years, during which it produced but few good and 
great monarchs. Dissensions and civil wars first weak- 
ened its power; indolence and habitual incapacity com- 
pleted its downfall. 

PEPIN, KING OF FRANCE.— A. d. 752—768. 

Pepin showed himself every way worthy of the high 
station to which he was now raised. He not only main- 
tained profound tranquillity in his kingdom, but extended 
its limits, and, from the very beginning of his reign, sig- 
nalized himself by a brilliant expedition equally impor- 
tant in itself and in its consequences. 

By this time, the Lombards, already masters of a great 
part of Italy, aimed at subduing the whole, and indeed 
conquered the province of Ravenna, which, under the 
name of Exarchate, had until then belonged to the empe- 
rors of Constantinople. Rome itself being on the point of 
falling into their power. Pope Stephen sent to implore 
necessary succors from Constantine Copronymus, in whose 
name the government of Rome was still exercised. But 
that emperor was too deeply engaged in warring against 
the images of the Saints, to think of sending troops 

* See note F. 



A.D. 752— 7G8. 



KING OF FRANCE. 249 



against the Lombards. In this extremity, the Romans 
embraced the last resource which was left them, that of 
callino; the valiant monarch of the French to their 
assistance. 

The Pope went in person to France, where he was re- 
ceived with all possible honor and respect, and found the 
king and his lords ready to undertake the defence of 
Rome against its obstinate enemies. But before any act 
of hostility, and in order to prevent the effusion of Chris- 
tian blood, deputies were sent, at the Pope's request, to 
Astolphus, King of the Lombards, strongly to exhort 
him to do justice, and renounce his ambitious views. 
The fierce Lombard answered the proposal with threats 
and insults. Pepin then marched with his troops into 
Italy, and forcing the passage of the Alps, defeated the 
Lombards, and obliged Astolphus to shut himself up in 
Pavia, his capital, where, after a short siege, the van- 
quished prince consented to accept the terms of peace 
offered by the conqueror. With the most solemn pro- 
mises he agreed to restore the towns which he had taken, 
and to put every thing in the same state as before the 
w^ar. Pepin, having taken his word, contrary to the 
advice of the Pope who knew the character of Astolphus 
better, returned to France. 

Scarcely had he departed, when the perfidious Lombard 
recommenced hostilities, and laid siege to Rome, around 
which he renewed all the ravages of the late war; Ste- 
phen had recourse again to his royal protector, and Pepin 
again hastened across the Alps into Lombardy. His march 
was equally successful and rapid. Astolphus dared not 
face him in the field, postponed no longer the execution 
of the stipulated treaty, and was moreover condemned to 
bear the expenses of the war. 

At this juncture, two ambassadors arrived from Con- 
stantinople, to claim for the emperor the restitution of the 
cities and provinces which had been usurped by the Lom- 
bards. Pepin answered, with a firm tone, that these 



250 ' MODERN HISTORY 



Part III. 



countries being now his conquest as justly as any one 
obtained in a lawful war, it was quite surprising that the 
Greeks should claim for themselves the fruit of his labors, 
and the possession of lands and places which they had 
been neither willing to defend, nor able to preserve: ac- 
cordingly, as it was not for their master that he and his 
troops had undergone so many fatigues, it was not to him 
that he would resign what he had so justly acquired. 

The French king intended to make a donation of his 
conquests in Italy to Pope Stephen and his successors 
in the pontifical chair. After the Greek deputies had 
retired, he executed his resolution, by a solemn grant to 
the see of Rome of that part of Italy which is, on this 
account, called the Ecclesiastical State, and has ever since 
composed the temporal dominions of the Popes. Before 
that time, they had been subject in civil matters to the 
Roman or Greek emperors : but, when the Roman empire 
no longer comprised the generality of Christendom ; when, 
after its downfall in the West, there sprung up from its 
ruins innumerable states and kingdoms, whose preten- 
sions, views and interests were different, nay more com- 
monly opposite ; it was the kind design and will of Divine 
Providence, that the Popes should become totally inde- 
pendent of the authority and influence of any secular 
prince; this independence they afterwards obtained 
through the instrumentality of Pepin and of his successor 
Charlemagne, who conferred on the Popes such an extent 
of temporal power as might enable them freely to exer- 
cise their spiritual authority.* 

The middle of the eighth century seemed destined to 
witness great changes in every part of the world. For at 
that period the Ommiades who had held the Mussulman 
sceptre for about a hundred years, were, after a bloody 
struggle, deprived of their ascendancy by the Abassides, 
another powerful family among the Arabs. Aboul Abbas 
was the first caliph of this new dynasty. His successor, 

* See Note G. 



A. D. 75-2— 768. 



PEPIN, KING OF FRANCE. 251 



Almanzor, built on the left bank of the Tigris the splen- 
did city of Bagdad which he made his residence. This 
city was, under the Abassides, what Damascus had been 
under the Ommiades, and Medina, under the first succes- 
sors of Mahomet. 

In the same time, Abderame, one of the Ommiades, 
having escaped the ruin of his family, fled from Asia to 
Spain, where he found the power of the Saracens much 
weakened by their late defeats in France, by the progress 
of the Christians in Asturias, and by their own dissen- 
sions and feuds. Putting himself at the head of one of the 
contending parties, he overcame the others, and founded a 
kingdom free from all allegiance to the caliphs of Bagdad. 
Cordova was the capital of this new empire. 

The late defeats, just mentioned, of the Saracens in 
France, had been achieved by King Pepin. This warlike 
monarch drove them entirely beyond the Pyrenees, added 
Aquitania to his dominions, and moreover enabled him- 
self, by his activity and constant vigilance, to render his 
arms equally formidable to the various nations of Ger- 
many. Broken down by the hardships of so many cam- 
paigns, rather than by old age, he died in the fifty-fourth 
year of his life, the seventeenth of his reign, and the 
twenty-seventh of his political and public career (a. d. 768). 

Valor, prudence, all the endowments of a noble mind 
and a generous soul, though somewhat tinged with am- 
bition, contributed to make Pepin a most accomplished 
monarch. He had a surprising talent for conciliating 
esteem, respect and affection. Although his birth did not 
call him to the throne, he ascended it with general ap- 
plause, did not spill one drop of blood either to obtain or 
to preserve it, and, from the beginning, so well established 
his authority, that no mention is made of the least rebel- 
lion during his reign. Prudence was his predominant 
quality, and one of the greatest praises that could, in 
after ages, be bestowed on a prince, was to say of him : 
** He is as prudent as Pepin." In a word, being the son 



252 MODERN HISTORY. Part III. 

of one hero and the father of another, he appeared worthy 
of both, and historians observe that every thing was re- 
markable in him except his size from which he derived 
the surname of Short. 

But even that, although for many persons an object of 
raillery, became for Pepin an occasion of glory. On a 
certain day, as he was witnessing the combat of a bull 
and a lion, exhibited for the amusement of the court, he 
turned to his attendants, and asked which of them felt 
bold enough to separate those furious beasts. Not one 
dared make thcattempt. *' Mine then shall be the task," 
replied Pepin ; and leaping into the circus, he went to the 
lion which he killed by a single blow of his cimeter, and 
with another stroke cut off the head of the bull. All ex- 
tolled his bravery, and acknowledged the impropriety of 
their railleries. 



CHARLEMAGNE, KING OF FRANCE AND LOMBARDY. 

A. D. 768—800. 

It would have been no small honor for the successor 
of Pepin to follow in the steps of this great prince. 
Charles, his eldest son, did more than this ; he surpassed 
him, and by the invincible firmness of his mind, the supe- 
riority of his genius, and the incredible number of his ex- 
ploits, raised the French monarchy to the highest degree 
of splendor that it ever attained. 

In effect, a continual series of victories gained over the 
Saxons, the Lombards, the Saracens, the Greeks, the 
Avari, and other nations; the conquest of Saxony, Bava- 
ria, Noricum, Dacia, Pannonia, Dalmatia, and of a con- 
siderable part of Italy and Spain; the diligent and wise 
administration of his extensive dominions, during a great 
number of years; the civilization of Germany; the re- 
vival of sciences and literature ; the re-establishment of 
the western empire with all its prerogatives in favor of 



A. D. 768-800. CHARLEMAGNE, KING, ETC. 253 

the French monarch and of his successors : such are the 
splendid characteristics with which the reign of Charle- 
magne presents itself to the admiration of posterity. 

He began by chastising the Aquitanians who had just 
revolted, and the Saxons who, at the other extremity of 
his kingdom, had made inroads upon his territory. After 
this double campaign, he was called into Italy for a still 
more glorious and useful expedition against Desiderius, 
king of the Lombards, who obstinately refused to abide 
by the treaty concluded by his predecessor Astolphus with 
Pepin. That restless and ambitious prince was even 
threatening the city of Rome, nor could the favorable 
conditions that were offered him, prevail upon him to 
give satisfaction. 

Charles therefore resolved, at the entreaties of the 
Romans, to afford them speedy relief, and rescue them 
from their foe by measures more vigorous and efficacious 
than mere exhortations. After the example of his father 
in the like circumstances, he crossed the Alps at the head 
of a gallant army, put the Lombards to flight, and in a 
few weeks rendered himself master of almost all the 
country which they possessed between the Po and the 
mountains. Still, Pavia, their capital, where Desiderius 
had taken his last refuge, resisted for six months, during 
which time Charles, whilst the siege was continued by his 
troops, went to Rome, and visited Pope Adrian I, a pon- 
tiff equally conspicuous for his ability and virtue. 

The Pope received his royal guest with great joy and 
extraordinary honors, and Charles in return manifested his 
respectful attachment to the Apostolic See, by ratifying and 
augmenting the donation which Pepin had made in its favor. 
Upon his return to the camp before Pavia, King Deside- 
rius surrendered at discretion. Charles spared his life, 
but sent him to a distant monastery, and, by being 
crowned and acknowledged in his place, annihilated the 
separate kingdom of Lombardy, which had lasted two 
hundred and six years (a. d. 774). 
22 



254 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part III. 



Scarcely was this important conquest achieved, when 
he was earnestly begged to pass over to Spain, for the 
purpose of rescuing some Moorish princes, his allies or 
tributaries, from their oppressors of the same nation. 
Complying with the request, he subdued the north of the 
Spanish Peninsula with as much facility as he had subdued 
the north of Italy, and with a very trifling loss. But, as 
he was leading back his victorious troops to France, being 
himself at the head of the van-guard, the rear was defeated 
by the Gascons in the defiles of the Pyrenees (a. d. 778). 
This however neither impaired his personal reputation, 
nor made him lose the fruit of his campaign. 

Immediately after his return, Charles had to renew the 
war against the Saxons. This warlike and savage people, 
though conquered many times before, did not cease, by 
their yearly revolts, to trouble the French monarch, and 
furnish him with continual occasions of exerting his valor, 
and exercising towards them his clemency or justice. 
On the return of almost every spring, they signalized 
their ferocious courage, by laying waste the countries 
situated between the Rhine and the Weser. As often 
iudeed as they took up arms, Charlemagne forced them to 
submit, and to implore his mercy ; but he had, among 
their chiefs, an implacable enemy, whom nothing could 
subdue. Always at the head of the rebels, this fierce 
warrior, when defeated, disappeared for a time, and, like 
another Arminius, returned to renew the attack as soon 
as he perceived in the attempt a gleam of success. 

Witikind was the name of this undaunted Saxon. He 
spent the time during the absence of Charles, in urging 
his countrymen to take up arms again ; and they readily 
complying with the summons, overthrew all the monu- 
ments of religion and foreign power which existed in 
that part of Germany. Some French troops having 
endeavored to suppress the rebellion, were themselves, 
through the misunderstanding of their generals, defeated 
and cut in pieces. 



A. D. 768-800. CHARLEMAGNE, KING, ETC. 255 

Charlemagne, little accustomed to receive such news, 
was much afflicted at this event, and lost no time in re- 
pairing, or at least in checking the evil. He marched in 
person at the head of a new army, and suddenly appear- 
ing among the Saxons, again forced them to submission. 
They came to him in great fear, and suppliantly sued for 
pardon, ascribing the guilt of the late revolt to Witikind 
who had now taken refuge among the Danes. But Charles, 
as dissatisfied with this excuse as he was exasperated at 
their continual acts of rebellion, and not believing it pos- 
sible to tame their ferocious spirit otherwise than by ex- 
ercising severe justice, required the other chief rebels to 
be immediately delivered into his hands, and sentenced 
them to be beheaded on the same^ay, to the number, it is 
said, of four thousand five hundred. 

He had intended, by this rigorous chastisement, to in- 
spire the whole nation with a salutary and lasting fear ; 
but the deep mourning which it first occasioned, was 
quickly turned into fresh and ungovernable animosity. 
Witikind once more reappeared, and going through the 
different parts of the country, infused into every breast 
his own fury and desire of revenge. Fury however was 
of little avail against the warlike genius and activity of 
the French monarch. He attacked them before they 
could muster all their forces, defeated them in three 
bloody battles, and did not cease during three years to 
visit with a terrible retribution every quarter of that un- 
happy region. 

Still, Charles ardently desired the end of a war which 
proved so destructive and fatal to his subjects as well as 
to his enemies. Resuming; therefore his former course of 
moderate measures, more conformable to his character 
than measures of rigor, he undertook to gain by mildness 
the very men whom the utmost severity and the most 
terrible disasters could scarcely subdue. Through his 
deputies, he represented to the Saxon leaders how many 
calamities they had brought upon their countrymen and 



256 MODERN HISTORY. Part III. 

upon themselves, and promised them not only entire 
safety, but even great honors if they would lay down 
their arms. 

At first, Witikind and Abbon, another renowned chief- 
tain, could hardly believe that the king was sincere in 
offering them such favorable conditions; but being at last 
induced to rely on his word, they went boldly to meet 
him. Charles received them with so much kindness, and 
treated them with such generosity, that they did not hesi- 
tate any longer to swear inviolable fidelity to so great a 
prince, and asked to be instructed in the Christian Reli- 
gion, which they sincerely embraced (a.d. 785). This step 
was followed by the entire reduction of Saxony. Partial 
revolts, it is true, continued to excercise for some years 
the activity of Charlemagne ; but these were much more 
easily checked than the former ; and, in order to prevent 
their revival in future, thirty thousand Saxon families 
were transported from the north of Germany to other 
parts of the French empire. At length, after an obsti- 
nate struggle of thirty years, this extensive country was 
entirely subdued, and, being now reckoned among the 
dominions of the French king, consented to receive the 
twofold benefit of civilization and Christianity. 

But new wars were threatening in other quarters. The 
conquests made by the French having awakened the fears 
and jealousy of the neighboring nations, their sovereigns 
concluded for their mutual support a powerful league, 
which however only afforded Charlemagne an occasion to 
gain new laurels and to enlarge his empire. All his ene- 
mies fell into the snare which they had prepared for him. 
He subdued the Bavarians, conquered the Greeks, carried 
his victorious arms into Pannonia, and defeated the Avari 
so often and with such loss, that tliis nation disappeared 
from the earth, and left in his power both their settle- 
ments along the Danube, and the prodigious wealth which 
they had acquired within the two last centuries by the 
pillage of the Greek provinces (a. d. 796). 



A. D. 768-800. CHARLEMAGNEj KING, ETC. 257 

When Charlemagne had obtained, by so many labors, a 
state of comparative tranquillity, he applied himself more 
than ever to make religion, justice, agriculture, commerce 
and the arts and sciences flourish throughout his vast em- 
pire. These great and useful objects he always kept in 
view, even when engaged in different wars; but more 
particularly when his sons and generals became capable 
of filling his place at the head of armies. The interior 
government of the state was then his chief employment. 
His wisdom in enacting laws most suitable for the time, 
place and other circumstances, and his firmness in en- 
forcing their execution, enabled him to restore good order 
wherever it had been disturbed, and to repress grievous 
abuses which had taken their rise before the reign of his 
father Pepin. 

Charlemagne undertook likewise to raise literature and 
learning from the low state to which the invasions of 
northern barbarians had reduced them during the last 
centuries. Accordingly, he invited men of great erudi- 
tion from foreign states to his court, and with their help 
established, in the principal towns of France and Ger- 
many, public schools for the purpose of promoting the 
study of every branch of true and useful knowledge. 
The most celebrated among them was Alcuin, a learned 
and virtuous Englishman, whom the French monarch 
loaded with honors and blessings. This prince appointed 
him to open a great school in his own palace, and to de- 
liver lectures, at which he himself usually assisted with 
his sons and other personages of his court. By these 
noble exertions, he made the desire of instruction almost 
universal among his subjects. Various establishments 
arose, especially in great cities, for the revival of science, 
and historians remark particularly a sort of academy, or 
society of learned men, who had frequent debates or kept 
up an animated correspondence on scientific and literary 
subjects, the king himself being one of its most distin- 
guished members. 
22* 



258 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part III. 



Charlemagne was now at the height of his glory, and 
the celebrity of his name had reached the most distant 
parts of the civilized world. The kings of the English 
Heptarchy solicited his friendship ; the Saracens of Spain 
dreaded his arms; Irene, the empress of Constantinople, 
entered into a treaty of alliance with him; and the cele- 
brated Caliph Aaron-Al-Rashid, the greatest monarch of 
the East, and, like Charles himself, a zealous protector of 
science, sent ambassadors to him from Bagdad, with 
splendid gifts, among which were the keys of the city 
of Jerusalem, a repeating clock, and an elephant (the 
first that had been seen in France): in a word, the whole 
earth admired his wisdom and respected his power. By 
the vigor and success of his military exertions, he had 
become master of a greater extent of country than any 
prince had possessed in Europe since the fall of the 
western empire : all the territory that composes modern 
France ; Spain, from the Pyrenees to the Ebro ; the 
greater part of Italy; Dalmatia; Pannonia; Noricum or 
Austria; Helvetia or Switzerland; Bavaria; Germany, 
as far as the Baltic; Frisia and Holland, were subject to 
that mighty monarch. Nothing was wanting to his 
earthly grandeur but the imperial diadem ; and even this 
was bestowed upon him about this time, in the most 
flattering manner. 

Just at the end of the eighth century, he had repaired 
to Rome for the purpose of defending Pope Leo III 
against wicked and unjust persecutors. In return for 
this and other benefits, the Romans agreed to proclaim 
Charlemagne emperor of the West. Accordingly, as he 
was assistino; at the divine office in St. Peter's church on 
Christmas-day, the Pope approached, and, in presence of 
a multitude of bishops and lords and an immense crowd 
of people, placed on his head the imperial crown which 
had been purposely prepared, all present crying out at 
the same time, in transports of joy; "Life and victory to 



259 



Charles, most pious, the great and pacific emperor of the 
Romans ;" this was repeated three times (a. d. 800). 

Thus was the Roman empire, three hundred and twen- 
ty-four years after its extinction in the West, revived in 
favor of a monarch truly deserving, by his piety, valor 
and heroic actions, to be the successor of Theodosius 
and Constantine. The singular modesty which he evinced 
on that occasion, made him appear still more worthy of 
the extraordinary honors which he received. We learn 
from Eginard, his secretary, that he was totally unac- 
quainted with the design of the Pope and of the Romans. 
In returning from divine service, he declared that, had 
he known what was to take place, he would have abstained 
from going to church on that day, notwithstanding the 
solemnity of the festival. 

From this time forward, Charlemagne joined the title 
of Roman emperor with that of king of France and 
Lombardy. During the stay which he made in Rome 
after the ceremony of liis coronation, his extraordinary 
munificence and generosity orained him more and more 
the hearts of the people. Even the court of Constanti- 
nople acquiesced at last in acknowledging him as emperor 
of the West, though with great repugnance : but the 
consent was necessary, and the refusal would have been 
useless, and perhaps dangerous. 



REMARKS ON THE STATE OF CIVILIZATION, LEARNING, 
AND RELIGION, 

DURING THE THIRD PART OF MODERN HISTORY. 

No one, well acquainted with the history of past and 
remote ages, can forbear noticing that contagious distem- 
pers, famine, and other similar visitations were then much 
more common than they are at present. This diiference 
may be ascribed in some measure, to the want of expe- 
rience in those times, or to a great deficiency in the use 



260 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part III. 



of necessary precautions with regard to the cleanliness of 
cities and towns, streets, houses, dress and burials. 
Still, it would be neither just nor accurate to acknow- 
ledge no other causes than these, of the calamities which 
befel men during the period in question, and thence con- 
clude a total absence of foresight and civilization : for, 
verj frequently also, through the dispositions of divine 
wisdom, power and justice, they originated in earth- 
quakes, inundations, excessive heat or extreme cold, and 
other natural effects which could not be either foreseen 
or prevented. Merely to add one instance more to the 
facts already mentioned (see reign of Justin I, of Mauri- 
tius, etc.); in the year 763, the Euxine, or Black Sea, which 
now shows almost no ice even in the dead of winter, was 
frozen, throughout a considerable part of its extent, and 
during the space of four months, to the depth of forty- 
five feet, with thirty feet of snow on the surface. In the 
following summer, a multitude of springs and rivers 
were dried up by the excess and duration of the heat. 
The history of those times is full of such phenomena. 

A more general and more lasting calamity was that 
occasioned by the settlement of the barbarian tribes in 
the civilized world. Their successive invasions and in- 
cessant warfare necessarily produced great confusion in 
the laws, customs and manners of the countries which 
they occupied. It was only by repeated exertions, and 
after a lapse of many years, that these new states were 
enabled distinctly to establish their respective constitu- 
tions and national character. Languages too, by the 
continual intercourse of the conquerors and the van- 
quished, became singular medleys of Latin and Celtic 
and Gothic words, which happening to undergo, during 
the course of ages, various alterations or improvements 
peculiar to each clime and country, gave rise to the prin- 
cipal tongues of Europe, as they now exist. 

One of the most pernicious effects of the invasion of 
the barbarians, was the rapid decline of literature, arts 



REMARKS ON THE CIVILIZATION, ETC. 261 

and sciences, wherever those wild conquerors passed or 
settled. Owing to their almost exclusive relish for war 
and plunder, literary and scientific monuments disap- 
peared from innumerable places, and in the very regions 
where formerly belles-lettres had been most flourishing, 
ignorance began to prevail, not however to such an extent 
as is commonly imagined : even at the epoch which pre- 
ceded the revival of learning under Charlemagne, there 
always remained much of useful knowledge. The vast 
store of erudition possessed by a Venerable Bede, an 
Alcuin, a Deacon Paul, etc.; the numerous and eminent 
scholars that went forth from Ireland, England, Italy, 
etc. are sufficient vouchers of this truth. Nay more, dis- 
coveries were made in those times of confusion, which 
would have done honor to conspicuous and enlightened 
ages ; among others, the invention and application of 
water-mills, in the year 555 ; of glass windows for 
churches, about the same time; silk manufactures, in 
551; bells in churches, towards 605; organs, in 660; 
the Grecian fire, in 673 ; computation of years from the 
birth of Christ, first proposed by Dionysius Exiguus, a 
learned monk (of the 6th century), adopted and used in 
742. 

Religion was the chief, or rather the only means which 
stemmed this torrent of barbarism, and not only saved 
letters and learning from universal shipwreck, but also 
caused the wild tribes, whose destructive invasion had 
been so detrimental to them, gradually to imbibe and 
adopt the principles of civilized and social life. It was 
not to be expected that the Goths, Franks, Lombards, 
Saxons and Germans, would ever receive those principles 
from human studies which they heartily despised : Chris- 
tianity alone could, and really did rescue them from 
their ignorance and barbarity. As it was already estab- 
lished in the provinces that fell under their power, these 
savage tribes, whose habits of plunder and revenge could 
not be checked by force of arms, sooner or later yielded 



262 MODERN HISTORY. Part III. 

to the mild precepts of the gospel. Their minds and 
hearts became attached to a religion which did not teach 
them only by speculative maxims and didactic precepts, 
but also by examples, festivals and rites equally moving 
and instructive. 

No sooner had they received and embraced the faith of 
Christ, than they began to lay aside the rudeness of their 
manners, and to establish among themselves a more ade- 
quate distribution of justice. By the enactment of laws 
founded on the commands of God himself and adapted to 
the exigencies of social order, men were taught and 
induced to set on the lives of their fellow-mortals a 
higher value than they did before. By the enforcement 
of the divine law concerning the indissolubility of mar- 
riage, there resulted an immense benefit for the commu- 
nity at large, as well as for individuals and families. 
Shameful acts, which idolatrous nations had considered 
mere trifles, were now entirely suppressed. A stronger 
barrier was opposed to human passions ; morals became 
more pure, nobler feelings animated mankind, milder 
customs were introduced; and these salutary effects 
were invariably in proportion to the degree of influence 
which religion acquired over the minds of her new fol- 
lowers. 

** The influence of Christianity,'- says the learned 
Chancellor Kent, *' was very efficient towards the intro- 
duction of a better and more enlightened sense of right 
and justice among the governments of Europe. It taught 
the duty of benevolence to strangers, of humanity to the 
vanquished, of the obligation of good faith, and the enor- 
mity of the sin of murder, revenge and rapacity. The 
history of Europe, during the early periods of modern his- 
tory, abounds with interesting and strong cases, to show 
the authority of the church over turbulent princes and 
fierce warriors, and the eff*ects of that authority in melio- 
rating manners, checking violence, and introducing a 
system of morals which inculcated peace, moderation and 



REMARKS ON THE CIVILIZATION, ETC. 263 



justice." KenPs Commentaries on American Law , vol. i, 
p. 10, of the 9.d edition. 

Bishops, priests and monks, afterwards so much calum- 
niated bj an ungrateful posterity, were the active instru- 
ments employed by Divine Providence to forward these 
various improvements in their respective countries. It 
was from episcopal houses and monasteries that crowds 
of holy missionaries went forth to instruct, convert and 
civilize the fierce barbarians of the north. Nay more, 
the superiors of clerical and monastic bodies were fre- 
quently invested by christian kings and emperors with 
civil jurisdiction, and as it was exercised by them in a 
more equitable manner than by secular magistrates, men 
quickly learned to prefer their decisions to the hasty 
judgments of warlike and ignorant nobles. This accounts 
for the great portion of temporal authority which bishops 
and abbots possessed in those remote ages, and which 
they used in checking the arbitrary vexations of private 
lords, and rendering as much as possible the various 
classes of the people partakers of the general advantages 
of society. 

The zeal of the clergy and monks, preserved also not 
only the sacred science of religion, but likewise all the 
diflferent branches of useful learning. Their solicitude 
was industrious in discovering and collecting the relics of 
ancient literature, and many persons among them daily 
allotted a considerable portion of their time to the hum- 
ble but useful occupation of transcribing old manuscripts. 
Others, more fit for manual labor, actively employed 
themselves in clearing forests, draining marshes and fer- 
tilizing barren grounds. Every obstacle presented by 
nature or the soil, was overcome by their unwearied ex- 
ertions, and plentiful crops arose where before naught 
was seen but reeds or briars. Thus, while the lay pro- 
prietors reigned in solitary grandeur over their wide and 
unfruitful domains, the lands originally bestowed on the 
monks and clergy by the gratitude, confidence and piety 



264 MODERN HISTORY. Part III. 

of their contemporaries, were cultivated and improved ; 
their houses were an asylum constantly opened to the 
poor, the infirm and the traveller; their villages were 
crowded with inhabitants, and the foundations were laid 
of several among the principal cities in England, France, 
Germany, etc.* 

Still greater and more important than these, were the 
benefits conferred by the Sovereign Pontiffs upon Europe 
at large, and all Christendom. This will be the subject 
of a separate dissertation on the Popes of the middle ages. 

* See Lingard, Aniiquiiies of the Anglo-Saxon Cliurch, ch. 3, 4 and 
10; — Bergier, Diction. Thiol., articles, Moines, Monasteres, Sfc. 



PART IV. 

FROM THE REVIVAL OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE (A. D. 800), TO THE 
BEGINNING OF THE CRUSADES (A. D. 1095). 



CHARLEMAGNE, EMPEROR.— a. d. 800—814. 

Charlemagne signalized the beginning of his reign as 
emperor, by redoubling his zeal for the happiness of his 
people. Still more than ever did he watch over the dif- 
ferent parts of his vast monarchy, to procure in them all 
a speedy redress of grievances and an exact administra- 
tion of justice. As to the command of armies, he now 
left it to his lieutenants and his sons, whom he had so well 
trained in military science, that victory followed their 
standards on almost every occasion, whether in Italy, 
Germany or Spain. The Moors or Saracens experienced 
by new defeats the superiority of French discipline and 
courage ; Bohemia and the coasts of Venetia were added 
to the empire ; the north-eastern frontier was extended to 
the shores of the Baltic, and the Danes were taught to 
confine themselves to their isles and their peninsula of 
Jutland. 

These new and brilliant conquests were owing chiefly 
to the abilities of Charles and Pepin, the two eldest sons 
of Charlemagne. With delight he looked upon these 
young heroes as the supporters of his empire, and his 
future successors ; but he had the misfortune to see both 
of them die in the flower of their age and in the midst of 
their triumphs. Not permitting however the sensibility 
of the man and the grief of the father to prevail over the 
duty and firmness of the monarch, he did not abandon or 
neglect the cares of government, and seemed rather to be 
23 



266 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part IV. 



more active in improving all the good he had already 
done, in proportion as he approached the end of his long 
and glorious career. In fine, after having filled the world 
with the renown of his genius, virtue, conquests and leg- 
islation, after invaluable services rendered to religion and 
humanity, he died at Aix-la-Chapelle, in the year of our 
Lord 814, the seventy-second of his life, the forty-seventh 
of his reign as king, and the fourteenth of his reign as 
emperor. 

Never was there a monarch greater than Charlemagne^ 
perhaps his equal never existed, the epithet great being, 
in the judgment and language of posterity, so strictly due 
to him, that it constitutes a part of his name. He had a 
mind which wonderfully fitted him to rule over the most 
extensive monarchy. Vast in his designs and quick in 
their execution, going incessantly from one province to 
another wherever his presence might be required, from 
Italy to France, and from the Pyrenees to the shores of 
the German Ocean, he possessed in an extraordinary de- 
gree the uncommon talent of performing the greatest 
things with promptness, and the most difficult with fa- 
cility. His laws and statutes, commonly known under 
the name of capitulars, every where display a wonderful 
sagacity, anticipating every thing in point of duty and 
morality, and by a secret persuasive influence, leading 
irresistibly to the preservation of good order. All the 
parts of the empire were closely united by his mighty 
genius. He established such an equilibrium among the 
orders of the state, that they counterbalanced one another, 
and were constantly kept under his control ; his own 
children, two of whom were decorated with the title of 
king, being his first subjects, the instruments of his au- 
thority, and perfect models of obedience. 

Not less just than powerful, Charlemagne. never pro- 
voked the barbarian tribes that bordered on his frontiers ; 
but none of them ever attacked him with impunity. Never 
defeated, when commanding in person, he conquered or 



A. D. 800—814. 



EMPEROR. 267 



checked all his enemies, and by the celerity and preci- 
sion of his movements, frequently baffled their wisest 
measures and their plans of confederacy, before they 
could suspect that he was marching against them at the 
head of his armies. 

This wonderful sovereign and mighty conqueror was 
also one of the most learned men of his age. Arithmetic, 
astronomy, rhetoric, logic, even biblical criticism and 
theology, were sciences familiar to him. Besides the 
Celtic, his native tongue, he knew Greek and Latin well ; 
and being naturally possessed of great eloquence, he could 
speak, though unprepared, with much grace and facility 
on almost every subject. 

Nor were his moral and christian qualities inferior to 
his military, political and literary acquirements. Except 
perhaps in the earlier part of his life, in which his private 
conduct does not seem to have been altogether blameless, 
he gave constant marks of the most sincere piety, profound 
respect for the church, exact justice towards every one, 
unwearied beneficence, and unbounded charity towards 
the poor, the widow and the orphan. These and other 
distressed persons he assisted not only in his own domin- 
ions, but also in other countries, sending for that purpose 
large sums of money to Africa, Egypt and Syria. Hence 
there is no exaggeration in the remark of an ancient 
author,* that his death produced universal grief and 
mourning, particularly among his subjects, and that the 
pagans themselves bewailed his loss as that of the father 
of mankind. 

What must increase our admiration for Charlemagne, 
is the amiable simplicity of manners which appeared in all 
his ordinary actions, and which was more remarkable in 
him than in other great men. It is particularly interest- 
ing to see how he regulated his family. His queen at- 
tended to the furniture of the palace, paid the wages of 

* Monach. Engolism. ; see ^nn. du rnoyen age^ vol. vjir, jt). 353. 



268 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part IV. 



the ofi&cers and servants, settled the daily expenses of the 
table, and procured the necessary provisions. He watched 
over the education of his children with such assiduity and 
tenderness, that he would never sit down to table without 
them, nor be separated from them even during his voyages. 
He managed the revenues of his estates with as much 
prudence as he did those of the empire itself, took care 
that all the lands should be diligently cultivated, and, 
whilst he spent in works of beneficence the immense 
treasures of the Lombards and the Avari, commanded his 
farmers to sell their superfluous fruits, vegetables, and 
other such things, rather than commit the least waste. 
In his ordinary dress, he wore no other coats and tunics 
than those prepared by the persons of his own household. 
Charlemagne however knew how to appear with majes- 
tic dignity, and could display great magnificence, when- 
ever he was obliged to act as sovereign, for instance, in 
the reception of foreign ambassadors. Many splendid 
buildings owed to him their existence and embellishments. 
His palace of Aix-la-Chapelle, where he usually resided, 
exhibited all that architecture and art could effect at that 
time. He created a navy, in order to oppose the first de- 
scents of the Normans, those famous pirates of the north. 
In fine, it was his design to unite the Alantic with the 
Euxine sea by a canal that would have reached from the 
Rhine to the Danube : a project truly worthy of the ge- 
nius of Charlemagne, but the execution of which exceeded 
the industry of his contemporaries, and failed for want of 
necessary instruments and experience. 



LOUIS THE DEBONNAIRE AND HIS SONS.— a. d. 814—877. 

Charlemagne was succeeded by his son Louis, sur- 
named the Pious or the Debonnaire, who had shown until 
then much wisdom in the government of Aquitania, and 
great courage in his expeditions against the Saracens of 



A. D. 814-877. LOUIS THE DEBONNAIRE, ETC. 269 

Spain. His virtues indeed accompanied him to the 
throne; but his talents proved inadequate to this new 
and much more exalted station. Nearly the whole of his 
reign was spent in adopting false and impolitic measures 
which drew contempt upon his authority, and the most 
humiliating disasters upon his person. Twice he was 
outrageously reviled and deposed by his own sons and 
ministers, and twice re-established by the exertions of 
his affectionate subjects. These troubles and revolu- 
tions greatly weakened the French monarchy, and per- 
mitted the Saracens on one side, and the Normans on 
the other, to ravage with impunity the coasts of Italy and 
France. 

Louis died in 840, leaving three sons who divided the 
empire among themselves. France was allotted to Charles 
the Bald ; Germany to another Louis ; and Italy to Lo- 
thaire, with the title of emperor. This last, who had been 
the chief promoter of the late disturbances and rebellions 
against his father, undertook also to deprive his brothers 
of their rights. Charles and Louis, not being able to 
produce a change in his sentiments, united their forces 
against him, and completely defeated him in the fierce 
battle of Fontenay, near Auxerre, which cost the lives of 
a hundred thousand men. Lothaire fled to Aix-la-Cha- 
pelle, and shortly after was compelled to retire into his 
Italian dominions : but the conquerors not knowing how 
to ensure the permanency of their victory, the civil war 
still continued for a time, without any important result, 
except a waste of their forces and the misery of their sub- 
jects ; which circumstances, added to the continual pira- 
cies of the barbarians on all sides, more and more debased 
the family of Charlemagne, and prepared its downfall. 

The want of prudence and firmness in Charles the 
Bald occasioned another evil which proved the ruin of 
public tranquillity, particularly in France. Until that 
time, the presidency and government of provinces, duke- 
doms and counties, had been temporary and reversible 
23* 



270 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part IV. 



charges ; but, towards the middle of the ninth century, 
they were permitted to become hereditary dignities, trans- 
ferable from father to son. This considerably increased 
the power of their possessors, to the detriment of the royal 
authority which they acknowledged only by the almost 
nominal homage of a precarious vassalage. Such was the 
origin of feudalism, which by upholding a multitude of 
petty tyrants, brought for many centuries a deluge of evils 
upon the fairest portions of Europe. 



ARABIAN AND GREEK EMPIRES DURING THE NINTH 
CENTURY. 

x^OT dissimilar to the empire founded by Charlemagne, 
was that of the Arabs in Asia and Africa. It reached the 
summit of its glory under Aaron-Al-Raschid, and sensi- 
bly declined under his successors, none of whom had 
abilities equal to those of this celebrated caliph. He 
waged war against the Greeks with uninterrupted success, 
obliging the famous empress Irene, and after her, the em- 
peror Nicephorus, to pay him a heavy tribute. No Mus- 
sulman prince, except perhaps Caliph Omar, was ever 
more absolute, or knew better how to enforce submission. 
It was enough for him, when he had the least suspicion 
or discontent against his generals and governors of pro- 
vinces, to send them word to resign their offices; the 
order obtained immediate and punctual obedience. 

Aaron sometimes carried his severity to excess, and 
whilst, on one hand, he exercised uncommon liberality 
and beneficence, he is said, on the other, to have occa- 
sionally set aside the rights of equity and gratitude, in 
order to indulge his ill-grounded suspicions and capricious 
feelings. He is however styled the Just, probably for 
some remarkable acts of justice which he performed, or 
for the just protection which he granted to literature, 
arts and sciences. In fact, he contributed, more than any 



A. D. 800-886. ARABIAN AND GREEK EMPIRES. 271 

other caliph, to raise the eastern Arabs from the state of 
ignorance and darkness in which they had been so long 
buried. He assembled in his court of Bagdad learned 
men of every class and country, to make them translate 
into Arab or Syriac books on philosophy and astronomy, 
which he had bought from the Christians. About this 
time, a greater social intercourse began to introduce into 
Europe the Arabian cyphers, with the sciences of algebra 
and chemistry, and also the Gothic architecture, so called 
from the Goths of Spain, to whom it was first communi- 
cated by the Moors. 

Aaron-Al-Raschid died in the year 809, after a prosper- 
ous reign of twenty-three years. The Arabian monarchy, 
no longer supported by his vigorous hand, gradually lost 
the strength which he had imparted to it; whereas the 
Greek empire, on the contrary, began to recover from the 
heavy losses which it had suffered under Nicephorus. This 
wicked emperor, during the nine years (802 — 811) that 
he occupied the throne, seemed to vie with foreign foes in 
harassing and plundering his people. The end of his 
reign was particularly disastrous. Having, though abso- 
lutely destitute of talents, the highest idea of his princely 
abilities, he undertook against the Bulgarians an expedi- 
tion which he thought would be decisive and sufficient to 
avenge all previous defeats. Through his own imprudence 
and temerity, just the reverse happened. The Bulgarians 
shut him up with his numerous troops between defiles and 
and mountains, and made such slaughter of them, that 
nearly all perished, with the officers, the generals, and 
the emperor himself. His head was cut off, by command 
of King Crumnius, and the dried skull afterwards served 
as a cup in the solemn repasts of that fierce barbarian. 
After this, the conquerors poured into Thrace, a part of 
which they easily conquered under the short reigns of 
Stauracius and Michael Curopalates, advancing even so 
far as to threaten the capital. 

Such was the alarming state of the empire, until the 



272 MODERN HISTORY. Paniv. 

year 813, when Leo the Armenian, a man of great mili- 
tary skill, ascended the throne. He had no sooner assem- 
bled an army, than he marched out against the Bulgarians, 
and meeting their victorious hordes near Constantinople, 
came to a bloody engagement with them, in which he was 
on the point of being defeated. His troops, terrified by 
the multitude and fury of those barbarians, began to fly 
in great disorder, when the emperor, perceiving that there 
was as much confusion on the side of the conquerors as 
among the fugitives, suddenly rushed on the former with 
a body of reserve, and stopped them by the violence of 
the attack. This revived the courage of his own soldiers, 
who then returned to the field of battle, and enabled 
Leo to obtain a complete victory. The next campaign 
(a. d. 815) was still more successful. The emperor first 
deceived the Bulgarians by feigning to fly at their ap- 
proach, and when he knew from his spies that they did 
not suspect any danger, he entered their camp during the 
night, and surprising them in their sleep, put them all to 
the sword. After this, he advanced upon their territory, 
and laid it waste, experiencing but a slight resistance 
from the inhabitants, who had no regular troops to oppose 
him. So great was their loss on this occasion, that for 
the space of seventy years they were unable to do or 
afraid to attempt any thing against the empire. 

Leo spent the remainder of his reign in persecuting the 
defenders of holy images with great violence, and con- 
ducting the affairs of the state with a rigor which often 
bordered on cruelty. He was murdered in the year 820 
by the partisans of Michael surnamed the Siammerery 
commander of the guard, who was then confined for re- 
bellion, and who was raised from the prison to the throne. 
This was exchanging bad for worse; for Michael, besides 
being a cruel persecutor like Leo, was moreover an un- 
skilful and profligate prince from whom nothing good 
could be expected. His reign of nine years, instead 
of doing any service to the empire, beheld the loss 



A. D. 800-886. ARABIAN AND GREEK EMPIRES. 273 

of the rich islands of Crete and Sicily which were con- 
quered by the Mussulmen. 

Under Theophilus, the son and successor of Michael, 
war broke out again with fresh fury between the Greeks 
and the eastern Saracens. After many undecisive bat- 
tles, most of which however were fatal to the Greeks, 
Theophilus undertook, in 840, to repair his losses by an 
extraordinary effort. He set out at the head of one hundred 
thousand men, and, after overrunning all Syria, laid siege 
to Sozopetra, the birth-place of Caliph Mutasem. The 
Saracen prince, not having had time to assemble his 
forces, wrote to the emperor, and earnestly begged hioi 
to spare the town for his sake ; but, instead of complying 
with the request, Theophilus took and utterly destroyed 
Sozopetra, put many of the inhabitants to the sword, and 
led the others into captivity. 

This conduct filled the caliph with rage and an in- 
satiable desire of revenge. He raised an army superior 
in numbers to any that had, for a long time, been seen 
among the Saracens, and caused the name of Amorium to 
be engraved on the shields of all his soldiers, to signify 
that his object was the destruction of this place, the most 
flourishing city of Asia Minor, and the native place of 
Theophilus. In vain did the emperor supply it with a 
numerous garrison composed of the bravest troops and 
officers of his army ; in vain did they oppose so heroic a 
resistance, that Mutasem lost seventy thousand men in 
tlie short space of thirteen days : the besiegers, having 
been informed by a traitor of the weakest part of the 
town, carried it by storm during the night, and reduced 
it to ashes, after having made a dreadful slaughter of the 
garrison and inhabitants. Still, thirty thousand soldiers, 
or citizens, were preserved alive, to be led as prisoners 
into Persia; but many of them perished before reaching 
that country, and forty-two officers having generously 
resisted all the solicitations of the court of Bagdad to 
change the Christian faith for the religion of Mahomet, 



274 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part IV. 



were put to death after seven years of confinement and 
sufferings. 

The emperor Theophilus had died some time before 
(a. d. 842), of a disease the progress of which was accel- 
erated by his grief for the loss of Amorium. He was suc- 
ceeded by his son, Michael III, a worthless and wretched 
prince, who, after enjoying some years of prosperity under 
the regency of his virtuous mother Theodora, threw him- 
self into an abyss of crimes and evils, and authorized the 
first separation of the Greek from the Latin Church. The 
chief author of that fatal schism was Photius, a man of 
great genius and learning, and of still greater ambition and 
wickedness. By his intrigues, which were supported by a 
vicious court, he succeeded in invading the patriarchal see 
of Constantinople, after he had procured the unjust ex- 
pulsion of the lawful patriarch, St. Ignatius (857). His 
unparalleled talent for dissimulation and imposture ena- 
bled him likewise to gain over to his party many of the 
principal personages in the Greek church and state ; but 
all his cunning failed with regard to Pope Nicolas I, in 
whom he found an insuperable barrier to all his wicked 
schemes. 

This great pontiff not only refused to approve of the 
irregular proceedings of Photius, but even pronounced 
against him a solemn sentence of excommunication. 
Photius, who had until that time acknowledged without 
difficulty the primacy of the Apostolic See, resolved in 
his anger to separate the church of Constantinople from 
that of Rome. He took the bold step in the year 866, 
and endeavored to support it by every means in his power, 
especially by impostures and calumnies of the most out- 
rageous nature. This course of violence lasted, it is true, 
but a short time, because, in consequence of a new revo- 
lution which happened at court, Photius was expelled 
from the patriarchal see, and solemnly condemned by the 
eighth General Council held in 869 at Constantinople for 
the reunion of the two churches ; still, there always 



A. D. 800-885. ARABIAN AND GREEK EMPIRES. 275 

lurked in the breasts of the oriental bishops a leaven of 
jealousy and discord, which again burst forth in the 
eleventh century, and completed their schism. 

The new revolution just mentioned took place in 867, 
when Michael III, whilst meditating the death of Basil 
the Macedonian, his associate in the empire, was himself 
killed in a state of intoxication, after a despicable reign 
of twenty-five years. Basil was, by unanimous consent, 
acknowledged sole emperor, and showed himself, not- 
withstanding his humble birth, more worthy of this high 
preferment than all his predecessors within the last two 
centuries. Not less attentive to save the citizens from 
oppression than to defend the state from foreign foes, 
whilst on one hand he gained considerable advantages in 
war against the Saracens, on the other, he repressed the 
injustice of magistrates and governors wherever he could 
detect it, as well in the nearest as in the most distant 
provinces, taking the greatest care to appoint to offices 
of trust only upright and virtuous persons, men neither 
to be bribed by presents nor frightened by threats, and 
wholly bent on the faithful discharge of their duties 
in favor of justice and innocence. In order to banish 
cupidity from all tribunals, he strictly forbade judges, as 
he allowed them a sufficient stipend from the state trea- 
sury, to receive any thing from either of the contending 
parties, under any pretence whatever. So far did he 
watch over the interest of poor people, when attacked 
before the courts of judicature by some rich and power- 
ful person, that he even established a public fund to ena- 
ble them to defend their cause and support them until it 
should be decided. 

The vigilance and firmness of Basil soon restored 
peace, abundance and security, in every part of the state. 
Complaints against governors and magistrates, which 
were extremely common before, ceased so completely, 
that the emperor, having one day gone, as usual, to re- 
ceive and examine the petitions which might be presented 



276 MODERN HISTORY. pamv. 

to him, did not hear of a single grievance. Fearing lest 
the injured persons might have been, bj violence or 
treachery, prevented from entering the palace, he sent 
confidential officers to inquire into the state of his sub- 
jects. After diligent investigation, all returned and 
assured the emperor, that they had found no one who had 
expressed any dissatisfaction. This news filled Basil 
with extraordinary joy; he shed tears of exultation, and 
gave thanks to God for so admirable a change. On 
another occasion, having been informed that the price of 
flour had become so high that poor people were almost 
dying with starvation, he directly caused all his granaries 
to be opened, and the wheat to be sold at one-twelfth of 
the ordinary price. 

This excellent emperor died in 886 of an accident 
which happened to him in the chase. A strong and 
stately stag, rushing by him, caught his cincture, and 
dragged him from his horse ; before assistance could 
arrive, the animal shook him so violently, that a mortal 
disease ensued, which in a few days brought him to the 
grave. He had reigned about nineteen years, during 
which, by constant and successful application to affairs, he 
infused new life into the Greek empire. His glory indeed 
is tarnished by the share which he took in the murder of his 
predecessor, by some acts of inhumanity towards prison- 
ers taken in battle, and a certain pride which occasion- 
ally betrayed him into false measures; still the great 
number of his illustrious and generous actions has justly 
ranked him among the most remarkable sovereigns of 
Constantinople. His descendants occupied the throne 
for nearly two centuries, but none of them was equal in 
talent and merit to the founder of their dynasty, and the 
empire fell again into the state of weakness and debase- 
ment from which it had been rescued by the exertions of 
Basil. 



A. D. 800—998. 



ETC. 277 



SPAIN DURING THE NINTH AND TENTH CENTURIES. 

A. D. 800—998. 

On the contrary, the increased extent and power of the 
new kingdom formed by the Christians in Spain, becomes, 
from that epoch, peculiarly remarkable. Ever since their 
first endeavors, under Pelagio and Alfonso I, successfully 
to struggle against the fierce invaders of their country, 
they almost constantly gained new advantages; but it is 
chiefly to the ninth age that the splendor of their heroical 
times ought to be referred. Their noble ardor and natu- 
ral bravery, continually stimulated by obstacles, rose now 
to a full display of their energies, and, whilst the Moors 
began to be enervated by a long possession of wealth and 
a fine climate, thirst after glory united with religious zeal 
produced among the Christians uninterrupted wonders in 
point of courage and virtue. 

In the first rank of great and conspicuous men v/ho 
flourished at that time, must be placed Kings Alfonso II 
and Ramirus I, both of whom conquered the Saracens in 
many battles, and greatly enlarged the Christian territory. 
Still more brilliant were the achievements of Alfonso III, 
surnamed the Great, during his long reign of about fifty 
years, from 862 to 912. He first employed himself in 
vindicating his rights to the throne against different com- 
petitors. This being accomplished, he attacked the Moors, 
and spreading terror among them by the rapidity of his 
marches, so often overthrew their armies in various cam- 
paigns, that he repeatedly compelled them to sue for 
peace. 

He was obliged to desist from war for a time, in order 
to suppress conspiracies that had been formed against him 
in his own family. Alfonso quelled them all by his ac- 
tivity and prudence, but dishonored himself on this occa- 
sion by an act that savored more of cruelty than of justice. 
Having discovered that his four brothers were at the head 
24 



278 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part TV. 



of one of these conspiracies, besides confining them to a 
prison, he caused their eyes to be plucked out : a sort of 
punishment, which, although frequently inflicted at that 
period on criminals of state, had in itself, especially in 
this circumstance, something inhuman and shocking. 

Alfonso, being thus delivered from all foreign and do- 
mestic enemies, devoted his time to the improvement of 
his kingdom of Asturias and Oviedo. By this means, he 
regained the affection of his people, but not that of his 
family. Whilst a new v/ar with the Saracens was aSbrd- 
ing him an occasion of new triumphs, another conspiracy 
at home recalled him from the pursuit of his conquests, 
and, though opposed by this warlike prince, at first with 
some success, finally compelled him to resign the sove- 
reign power in favor of his two sons (a. d. 911). Still, 
he requested that some troops should be left to his com- 
mand, to go and attack the Moors once more before his 
death. Having obtained his request, he made an irrup- 
tion upon their territory, and returned loaded with spoils. 
This was the last of his exploits. He died in the follow- 
ing year, after a reign almost continually agitated both by 
domestic dissensions and by foreign wars. 

Alfonso the Great being no longer on the throne, the 
success of military expeditions was sometimes on the side 
of the Christians, sometimes on that of the Saracens, and, 
for a long period, nearly equal on both sides. In the year 
921, the former were entirely defeated at Jonquera by 
the Arabian monarch Abderame III ; but in their turn, 
under the conduct of King Uamirus II, they gained a 
complete victory at Simancas, in 939 ; on which occasion 
eighty thousand Mussulmen are said to have lost their 
lives. 

This bloody defeat, and others which followed, did not 
prevent Abderame from raising his kingdom to a degree 
of splendor which perhaps it had never attained before. 
Being a skilful politician as well as a brave general, 
sometimes victorious, frequently conquered, but always 



_B. 800— 998. ojTAii^, i:.ii^. /il\) 

great, whetlier in peace or war, he ever knew how to im- 
prove his success and repair his losses. Notwithstanding 
the obstinate warfare in which he was engaged, and the 
great expenses which he must have incurred to support 
his armies, he displayed at court such magnificence as 
would appear incredible, were it not unanimously testified 
by contemporary historians. His palaces, his gardens, 
and his various monuments were splendid. Like two of 
his predecessors of the same name, and even more than 
they, he protected the arts and sciences ; established 
celebrated schools, especially of medicine ; attracted to 
his court the ablest physicians, architects, astronomers 
and poets of his age and nation ; and rendered Cordova, 
his capital, the centre of industry and learning. If we 
give credit to Arabian authors, this city contained 213,000 
houses, 85,000 stores, 600 mosques, 900 public baths, 70 
libraries, and 17 large institutions for the instruction of 
youth. 

Abderame, having the reputation of a great love for jus- 
tice, and such other moral qualities as may absolutely be 
found in a false religion, went through a long reign, in a 
manner which secured to him the esteem and confidence 
of his very enemies. But nothing perhaps so well proves 
the greatness and superiority of his mind, as the following 
note found among his papers after his death: "I have 
been caliph for fifty years, and have enjoyed all that men 
can possibly desire here on earth. Being desirous to 
know the number of the days in which, during this long 
space of time, my heart was truly satisfied, I found it, 
upon exact enumeration, to amount to fourteen only. 
Mortals, learn from me how to appreciate worldly gran- 
deur and this transitory life." 

Abderame III died in 961, at" the age of seventy-two 
years. The prosperous eifects of his government con- 
tinued to be felt under his first successors, owing chiefly 
to the exertions of their prime-minister, Mahomet Alman- 
zor, whose fidelity was equal to his courage, and who 



280 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part IV, 



always remained satisfied with an inferior rank, although 
he might have occupied the first with the consent of his 
nation. This famous warrior invaded, it is said, fifty-two 
times the Christian territory, and generally returned tri- 
umphant and loaded with booty. 

At first, he met with an invincible opponent in the per- 
son of Count Fernando Gonzales, the chief founder of 
the sovereignty of Castile, and one of the greatest men 
of an age which produced in Spain so many heroes. Most 
unfortunately for the Christians, Gonzales died in the 
year 979, twenty years before Almanzor. The undaunted 
Moor determined then, not only to repair his late defeats 
by new efforts and new invasions, but also to eflfect, if 
possible, the final overthrow of the Christians. If they 
commonly found him a kind and generous conqueror, they 
never experienced a more terrible enemy. He ravaged 
their dominions, attacked their armies separately, and 
defeated them all, notwithstanding their courageous re- 
sistance. 

Of all his victories, the most splendid and glorious was 
that which he gained, in the year 995, against King Ber- 
mudes II. This prince had just mustered great forces, 
in order to stem the destructive torrent. Although af- 
flicted with the gout, he put himself at their head, and 
from his litter gave the signal for battle. The Christians, 
animated by the presence of their sovereign, and by the 
consideration of their religion, their liberty and their 
lives, for which they were going to fight, attacked the Sa- 
racens with irresistible fury, routed them on all sides, 
and obliged them to flee in great disorder. Almanzor did, 
on that occasion, nearly the same that is related of Julius 
Csesar.* Dismounting from his horse, he lay upon the 
ground, and cried out that he preferred to be either trod- 
den under foot by the fugitives or slain by the conquerors, 
rather than outlive his glory. The sight of this great 

*In the battle of Munda (Spain), against the sons of Pompey (b, c.45). 



A, D. 800— QQS orAi.N, ejik,. /wbi 



man in such imminent clanger made his soldiers ashamed 
of abandoning him, and inspired them with fresh courage. 
Rallying around their general, they rushed v/ith him 
against the pursuers, whom the anticipation of victory 
had rendered too confident ; the Christians were terrified 
in their turn, and fled, yielding the victory to their intre- 
pid and obstinate enemies. 

After this, Almanzor, with little or no difficulty, over- 
ran the whole province, and taking, ransacking or burn- 
ing the cities, pursued the vanquished as far as the 
mountains of Asturias, which had been their first asylum 
nearly three hundred years before. He was disposed to 
carry his conquests still farther, had not a dreadful 
plague broken out among his soldiers, which destroyed a 
considerable part of his army and forced him to retire in 
great haste. When he returned with fresh troops, he 
found that the Christian princes of the different parts of 
Spain had now united their forces against the common 
enemy. They stopped his victorious march at Medina 
Cffili, or Calacanasor, in Castile (a. d. 998). The battle, 
upon v/hich such great interests depended, was begun with 
equal animosity on both sides, and lasted the whole day. 
The following morning the Christians prepared to recom- 
mence the attack, but soon perceived that the Moors had 
retreated. Almanzor, frightened at the greatness of his 
loss, which amounted to 100,000 men, dismissed his sur- 
viving soldiers, fled in despair to Medina, and there put 
an end to his life by starvation. 

With Mahomet Almanzor fell the splendor of the Ara- 
bian empire in Spain. His death was soon followed by a 
series of feuds and civil v/ars among the Arabs, which 
distracted their monarchy, and dismembered it into eight 
or nine petty kingdoms. This permitted the Christians, 
not only to recover entirely from their recent losses, but 
even to found and solidly establish four kingdoms in the 
north of the peninsula, viz., Leon including the more an- 
cient kingdom of Asturias and Oviedo, Navarre, Arragon 
24* 



282 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part IV. 



and Castile. These two, though the last in order of time, 
soon became the most powerful of the four, and after- 
wards formed by their reunion the present kingdom of 
Spain. 



ENGLAND DURING THE NINTH AND TENTH CENTURIES. 

A. D. 800— 1016. 

Among the states of modern Europe, none experienced 
during the middle ages more vicissitudes and revolutions 
than England. Its conquest by the Anglo-Saxons, and 
the establishment of the Heptarchy, have been already 
mentioned. As long as any district remained in the 
island, that might be easily subdued, the Saxon kings 
lived together in harmony, each one being content with 
his dominions, or extending them only at the expense of 
their common foes. Afterwards, they turned their arms 
against one another, and, by mutually weakening them- 
selves, gave occasion to the ruin of the Heptarchy. 

Egbert, the apparent heir to the crown of Wessex, had 
been first compelled by a strong party to leave the shores 
of England, and to take refuge at the court of Charle- 
magne. He served three years in the armies of that em- 
peror, and spent the period of his exile in acquiring a 
proficiency in the science of war and of government. 
Charles spared no pains in improving the noble and pro- 
mising qualities of the British prince, and in every im- 
portant transaction wished to have him near his person. 
He had taken him along in his last journey to Rome, when 
Egbert was informed of the death of his competitor, and 
of other favorable circumstances, which recalled him to 
his native country. 

The royal exile lost no time, but, taking leave of the 
French monarch, who loaded him with marks of affection 
and esteem, returned to England, where his claim was 
unanimously acknowledged by the West-Saxon lords. 
Being crowned with universal applause king of Wessex, 



I. r. 800—1016. 



ETC. 283 



in the year 801, he devoted the commencement of his 
reign to the cultivation of peace; but, from the time when 
he first unsheathed the sword against the Britons of 
Wales, each succeeding year was marked by new victo- 
ries and conquests. The Britons were subdued ; then 
the feeble kingdoms of Essex, Kent, and otliers shared 
the same fate; and before 830, Egbert had extended his 
authority over the greater part of the island. 

Scarcely however had he attained this superiority 
among the native princes, when he saw himself attacked 
by a foreign and most dangerous enemy. At this period, 
Denmark was the birth-place of a race of men who spent 
the best portion of their lives on the sea, either because 
they were compelled to leave their country which was 
too thickly inhabited, or because they preferred the fruits 
of rapine to those of industry. Whilst the Normans, 
their countrymen, laid waste the coasts of France and 
Spain, the Danes directed their attempts against the 
British isles. Their first descents, it is true, had no great 
effect, and produced temporary alarm, rather than perma- 
nent uneasiness. But, towards the close of the reign of 
Egbert, the numbers of the pirates perpetually increased, 
and their visits being annually renewed, took a much 
more alarming aspect. In 833, Egbert himself had the 
mortification to see his West-Saxons defeated by the 
invaders. Convinced of the necessity of adopting stronger 
measures, he summoned all his vassals around him, and 
waited in anxious suspense for the next descent of the 
enemy. Success crowned his efforts, and a decisive 
though bloody victory compelled the Danes to take refuge 
in their ships. This was the last exploit of Egbert, who 
died within a short time (a. d. 836), after a prosperous 
reign of about thirty-five years. 

His death, and the pacific disposition of his son Ethel- 
wulf, emboldened the barbarians to renew their invasions. 
Redoubled exertions were made, on the one side for the 
attack, and on the other for the defence, with a continual 



284 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part IV. 



alternation of success and misfortune. At last, a gene- 
ral battle was fought at Okeley (a. d. 851), in which the 
Danes were so completely overthrown, that their loss is 
said to have been greater than they had ever sustained in 
any age or country. They appeared to be disheartened by 
so severe a defeat, and respected, for a time, the shores 
of England. But their loss seemed only to urge them to 
make more extensive preparations for subsequent attacks. 
After the death of Ethelwulf, and under his four sons, 
Ethelbald, Ethelbert, Ethelred and Alfred, all of whom 
reigned successively, those undaunted pirates renewed 
their efforts and inroads with fresh and incessant fury. 
In spite of many severe losses which they again suf- 
fered, they returned to the charge so often and so repeat- 
edly, as finally to take possession, in a few years, of a 
great part of the island. 

Such was the state of Great Britain, when Alfred, the 
last of the four brothers just mentioned, ascended the 
throne in 871. No reign ever commenced with more 
unfavorable auspices. The Saxon prince had scarcely 
any troops to oppose the invaders, and found himself 
compelled to enter into a treaty with them, by which he 
was left in possession of Wessex and a few other dis- 
tricts, whilst they kept the better part of the country for 
themselves. Nor even did this arrangement last long. 
Repeated attacks of the Danes forced Alfred to abandon 
for a time the whole of his dominions to their rapacity, 
and retire into a small island situated in a morass between 
two rivers. Here he submitted to his humble lot with 
piety and resignation, in hope of better times. Being 
one day buried in deep reflection on the miseries of his 
country, he happened to let some cakes burn which the 
wife of the herdsman with whom he lodged had com- 
mitted to his care. She reproached him severely, telling 
him he was more ready to eat than to earn his bread. On 
another occasion, the pious king did not hesitate to give 
one-half of the only loaf that remained in the place to a 



L. D. 800—1016. 



ENGLAND, ETC. 285 



poor and needy traveller: a truly charitable action, which 
tlie providence of God shortly afterwards rewarded by 
the arrival of a large supply of provisions. 

In the mean time, the Danes spread terror throughout 
the whole country, which they plundered and laid waste, 
with almost no resistance. However, one of their par- 
ties was entirely defeated in 878, by the earl of Devon- 
shire, w^ho killed their general Ubbo with twelve hundred 
of his followers. This revived the courage of the Saxons, 
and Alfred having now quitted his retreat, a multitude of 
brave warriors flocked to his standard, ready to shed their 
blood for his defence and the independence of the realm. 
The king immediately marched out with them against the 
main body of the Danes, who, on their side, advanced 
with hasty steps to meet him on the field of battle. 

As the armies approached, they uttered shouts of mu- 
tual defiance, and, after the first discharge of their missile 
weapons, came to a close and sanguinary engagement* 
The animosity of the two nations, the efforts of their 
leaders, the fluctuations of victory, can be more easily 
imagined than expressed. The Danes displayed a valor 
worthy of their former renown; the Saxons were stimu- 
lated by honor, shame, and every motive that can influ- 
ence the heart of man. At lengtli, their intrepidity bore 
down all opposition ; the Northmen, after suffering a 
tremendous slaughter, fled to their camp, where being 
pursued and closely surrounded, they consented to capit- 
ulate. The terms imposed on them by the conqueror 
were, that they should either leave the island, or embrace 
the laws of Christianity; and if they became Christians, 
that they should quit the kingdom of Wessex, and con- 
fine themselves to their former settlements in other parts 
of England. All this appears to have been at the time 
faithfully executed. 

Alfred being now in a state of comparative tranquillity, 
get himself about repairing the damages occasioned by 
war, and prpviding against future disasters, The armjj 



286 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part IV. 



fortifications and navy claimed his first care. Bodies of 
regular troops were organized for the defence of his king- 
dom, especially along the coast; castles were built in 
places the best fitted to prevent the landing, or to impede 
the progress of an enemy ; and a considerable fleet was 
equipped, which, within a few years, obtained numerous 
triumphs over the pirates ; so that Alfred may be regarded 
as the real founder of the naval and military glory of 
Great Britain. 

He next turned his attention to the improvement and 
civilization of his people. In order to check the spirit of 
disorder and anarchy which, during the long period of 
barbarian invasion, had become prevalent throughout the 
realm, the king restored and enlarged the salutary insti- 
tutions of his predecessors, and from ancient statutes, 
composed a code of law adapted to the present circum- 
stances. But, as legislative enactments are of little avail, 
unless well observed in the community, he insured theif 
execution by his constant vigilance and firmness. Par- 
ticularly attentive to the proceedings of the courts of 
judicature, he frequently revised them himself, and re- 
ceiving the appeals of all injured persons, inflicted severe 
though proportionate penalties on all ignorant, negligent 
or iniquitous judges. This severity produced the most 
beneficial result; magistrates were taught to become 
more learned and more conscientious; whilst murder, 
theft and other crimes, being sure to meet with due pun- 
ishment, were rendered as rare as they had been common 
before. So exact was the observance of the laws, that, 
according to the unanimous assertion of English histo- 
rians, if a traveller lost his purse on the road, he would 
the next day find it untouched ; and some relate besides, 
that golden bracelets having been suspended on the high 
road, nobody ventured to steal so valuable an object. 

Alfred was also the restorer of literature and learning, 
which had considerably suffered during the late wars. 
With the assistance of distinguished scholars of his own 



A. D. 800—1016. 



ETC. ^ 287 



and foreign countries, whom he invited to his court, he 
not only founded the university of Oxford, but likewise 
opened schools in many other places for the instruction 
of his subjects. He himself gave to all the example of 
application to study, in which he succeeded so well, that 
several good works were either composed by him, or 
translated from the Latin into the Saxon tongue. Nof 
were these the only services that Alfred rendered to his 
people. He also encouraged agriculture, commerce, and 
all necessary or useful arts; applying himself above all 
to restore the salutary influence of religion, and to revive 
piety around him both by word and example. In fact, the 
domestic life of this admirable prince was as well regu- 
lated as his public conduct, and a proper management of 
his time enabled him perfectly to fulfil all his duties. 
Each day, he gave eight hours to the care of his kingdom, 
eight to study and works of piety or charity, and the 
other eight to sleep and necessary recreation. As the 
use of watches and clocks as we have them at present, 
was not yet known, he employed for the division of the 
day, six wax candles, each one of which burnt during 
four hours, and his chaplains informed him when each one 
was extinguished. 

After many years of peace, Alfred was attacked by 
those same Normans, who had so long and so often deso- 
lated the coasts of France. He opposed them with supe- 
rior ability, defeated them by land and sea, and, more 
successful than the French kino;s, delivered his kingdom 
from those adventurers. Shortly after, he died, full of 
glory and all sorts of merits (a. d. 900), having lived 
fifty-one, and reigned twenty-nine years. 

With the name of Alfred posterity has associated the 
epithet of Great; which indeed few princes have equally 
deserved for courage in danger and wisdom in govern- 
ment. Whilst many other kings of England are chiefly 
known in history by their actions in the field of battle, it 
is the praise of Alfred, that he was not merely a warrior, 



288 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part IV. 



but also the patron of learning and the legislator of his 
people. The celebrated Henry Spelman, filled with a 
sort of enthusiasm at the recollection of this illustrious 
king, speaks of him thus : " Alfred, the wonder and 
prodigy of all ages ! If we reflect on his piety, we will 
be inclined to believe that he always lived in retirement 
and solitude; if we recollect his warlike exploits, we 
will judge that he never departed from the camps; if we 
call to mind his learning and writings, we will imagine 
tliat he spent his whole life in a literary institution ; if 
we direct our attention to his wise administration and 
wholesome laws, it will seem that these had been ^^his 
only study and employment."* 

Alfred was succeeded on the throne by his son Edward. 
In legislation and literary merit, Edward was much infe- 
rior to his father; but he surpassed him in the magnitude 
of his conquests. During the whole of his reign (900 — 
924), there were but few intervals free from war against 
the Danes. He gained many victories over them, and, 
by the subjugation of various provinces, acquired more 
real power than had ever been possessed by his predeces- 
sors. All the tribes from Northumbria to the channel 
owned his sway; the kings of the Scots and the princes 
of Wales acknowledged him as their lord, or paid him 
tribute ; and the other nations in the island eagerly soli- 
cited his friendship. 

Athelstan, Edward's eldest son and successor (924^- 
940), pursued the same line of policy. By his unceas- 
ing efforts, the influence of the British and Danish chief- 
tains disappeared in England during the remainder of his 
reign. All the provinces originally subdued and colon- 
ized by the different Saxon tribes, became united under 
the same crown ; and the celebrated battle of Brunanburg 
in Northumbria (a. d. 937), confirmed the ascendency of 

* See, on the reign and qualifications of Alfred, besides civil histo- 
rians, a very learned, extensive and interesting note of Alban Butler, 
in his Lives of the Saints, under the 28th of October. 



A, D. 912—1024. 



FRANCE AND GERMANY. 289 



Athelstan. He thus completed the work commenced by 
his forefathers, and to him chiefly belongs the glory of 
having established what has ever since been called the 
Kingdom of England. 

This happy state of Great Britain was however soon 
disturbed by new storms, more furious and lasting than 
had ever been experienced before, most of the following 
monarchs, until the year 1016, being far from possessing 
the industry or prudence of Alfred, Edward and Athel- 
stan. The Danes reappeared with fresh forces, and so 
perseveringly carried on their depredations, that, with 
perhaps the solitary exception of the reign of Edgard 
(959 — 975), which was peaceful and prosperous, England 
presented nothing but almost uninterrupted scenes of de- 
struction, famine, pestilence, war and revolution. 



FRANCE AND GERMANY IN THE TENTH CENTURY. 
A. D. 912—1024. 

Such had been also, for a long time the case with 
France, the conquest of which was the ambition of the 
terrible men of the north. Although repelled with great 
loss from the walls of Paris in 886, they persevered in 
their course of piracy, under the conduct of Rollo, one 
of the greatest warriors of that iron-age. At length. 
King Charles the Simple consented to give up to them, 
on the condition of vassalage, the north of France, which 
thus became their permanent property about the year 912, 
and took from them the name of Normandy. This cession 
proved indeed most beneficial to the kingdom, and to the 
Normans themselves, who, without renouncing their war- 
like spirit, abandoned their predatory habits, and adopted 
those of a civilized and Christian life ; but it did not stop 
the decline nor prevent the downfall of the dynasty of 
Charlemagne. The same year, 912, beheld the imperial 
sceptre pass from his family into the hands of the Ger- 
man lords, whilst his successors on the French throne, 
25 



290 MODERN HISTORY. Part IV. 

for want either of talent or firmness, or of sufficient au- 
thority, were little respected in their own dominions and 
residence. The kingdom was shamefully parcelled out; 
as it were, between themselves and the great vassals of 
the crown, who, being frequently more powerful than the 
sovereign, became mere nominal subjects, and, refused to 
obey his orders when they appeared to conflict with their 
supposed interest or caprice; whereas they freely waged 
war against one another, with the help of their own re- 
spective subjects.* 

Such was the wretched condition of France and of its 
sovereigns during the tenth century. In fine, after the 
demise of Louis V, who died without issue, the French 
lords refused to acknowledge as his successor, his uncle 
Charles, duke of Lorraine, who had lately submitted him- 
self in the quality of a vassal, to the German emperor. 
They offered the sceptre to Hugh-Capet, duke of France, 
as being the most worthy of it for his royal qualities and 
the great power he already enjoyed (a. d. 987). In vain 
did Charles, at the head of an army, attempt to maintain 
his claims to the throne ; Hugh, having popular favor on 
his side, baffled all his measures and remained in posses- 
sion of the sovereign power. 

His reign lasted nine years, the greater part of which 
he spent in keeping his vassals and subjects within the 
bounds of respect and duty, as well by his prudence 
and moderation, as by multiplied victories. His wisdom 
still more appeared in his successful efforts to establish a 
regular mode of succession to the throne. Instead of 
dividing the kingdom among his sons, as had been so often 
and so imprudently done before, he, with the consent of 
the nation, ordered that Robert, the eldest, should be his 
only successor. The like was done after him at every 
new accession, and this practice was, by the men of that 

* The great vassals were six in number, viz. the three dukes ofBur- 

fundy, Normandy and France properly so called ; and the three earls of 
landers, Champagne and Toulouse. 



A. D. 912-1(^4. 



FRANCE AND GERMANY. 291 



age and country, deemed so important, that it became 
one of the fundamental laws of the French monarchy. 

The case was just the reverse in Germany. Ever since 
the empire was transferred from the French to the Ger- 
man princes, from hereditary it had become elective. 
The sceptre was first offered to Otho, duke of Saxony, 
who thought proper, on account of his advanced age, to 
decline the honor, and recommended Conrad, duke of 
Franconia, though his personal enemy, to the choice of 
the electors.* Conrad therefore was appointed, and 
reigned seven years (912-919). When he found himself 
drawing near the end of his life, he, with equal generosity, 
proposed for his successor, Henry, the son of Otho, as 
being the best fitted to rule the state in those turbulent 
times. 

Henry, surnamed the Fowler, on account of his fond- 
ness for hunting, was in truth well qualified to wear a 
crown, and fully answered public expectation. He de- 
livered Germany from the ravages of the surrounding 
tribes, especially those of the Hungarians, a fierce and 
warlike people of Scythian descent, whose only delight 
was in pillage and destruction. The emperor succeeded 
in uniting all the German forces against them, and the 
effect of this reunion was the entire defeat of the Hunga- 
rians in two tremendous battles fought near Mersburg 
(a. d. 920 and 934), in one of which they lost 80,000, and 
in the other 40,000 men. 

Henry was endeavoring at the same time, to promote, 
by every means in his power, the safety and happiness of 
his people. He organized a militia, inured the nobility 
to the hardships of war, fortified the towns, rescued the 
country from banditti and robbers, and took proper 



* The number of the electors did not continue always the same. By 
the Emperor Charles IV, in 1356, it was reduced to seven, viz., the 
archbishops of Mentz, Triers and Cologne ; the king of Bohemia, the 
duke of Saxony, the count Palatin, and the marquis of Brandeberg : to 
whom were subsequently added the dukes of Hanover and Bavaria. 



292 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part IV. 



measures to extend the wholesome influence of religion 
throughout all his dominions. The wisdom of his laws 
against vice and disorder was not less conspicuous than 
the multitude of his exploits against foreign enemies. 
This great prince died in 936, having lived sixty, and 
reigned seventeen years. 

Otho I, his eldest son, was chosen to succeed him in 
the empire, not however without much opposition from 
certain parties, and many obstacles, all of which he over- 
came by his prudence, firmness and activity. He was 
equally successful in different wars against the Bohe- 
mians, the Hungarians, and the Italian princes. His 
reign lasted thirty-seven years, during which he gave 
such proofs of unparalleled magnificence, generosity, 
valor, wisdom, religion and justice, as to deserve, not- 
withstanding some failings in the exercise of his power, 
the praise of impartial posterity. 

After him, the German throne was successively occu- 
pied, from 973 to 1002, by his son and grandson, both of 
the same name ; and from 1002 to 1024, by their relative 
Henry II, or St. Henry, under whom Germany again en- 
joyed all the advantages that can be expected from a good, 
wise and virtuous sovereign. Some years before he died, 
he had wished to renounce all earthly grandeur, and, ap- 
plying to Richard, abbot of St. Vannes in Lorraine, begged 
admittance into the monastery. The holy abbot, not to 
afflict him by a stern denial, received his vow of obe- 
dience, but immediately commanded him, in virtue of it, 
to reassume the government of the empire for the honor 
of God and the good of his people ; to which the pious 
monarch humbly, though reluctantly, submitted. As he 
left no children, the imperial sceptre passed a second 
time into the hands of the Franconian dukes, and, after a 
few reigns, devolved on the princes of the house of Suabia. 



A. D. 960-1040. EASTERN NATIONS. 293 



EASTERN NATIONS IN THE TENTH AND ELEVENTH 
CENTURIES.— A. D. 960—1040. 

In the meantime, the Greek empire had shone with great 
splendor under three successive emperors, Nicephorus 
Phocas, John Zimisces and Basil II, the first of whom 
began to reign in 963. He was born of an illustrious 
family in Constantinople, and from his youth distin- 
guished himself in the army. Having become a general, 
he succeeded, by his persevering efforts and vigilance 
united with valor, in expelling the Saracens from the im- 
portant island of Crete, of which they had been masters 
one hundred and thirty-five years (a. d. 960). The troops, 
to whom he was much endeared, raised him to the throne, 
after the death of Romanus II. He then extended his 
projects, and, attacking the Saracens of Asia with unre- 
lenting vigor, wrested from them many towns and several 
provinces, which he reunited to the empire. 

To these splendid achievements, the zeal of Nicephorus 
for military discipline contributed as much as his personal 
bravery. He kept his soldiers within the strict bounds 
of duty by the most efiicacious of all means, that of ex- 
ample, and, being as austere for himself as for the hum- 
blest individual in the army, easily induced others to be 
as patient and courageous as himself. Unfortunately, so 
great a warrior, the terror of all the enemies around, was 
also, by his avarice and exactions, the terror of his own 
subjects. Augmenting the taxes, and altering the coins, 
he seemed obstinately resolved to make all the riches of 
the nation pass into his coffers. Hence it happened that 
many officers, even among those who had been most sin- 
cerely attached to him, being now exasperated by his in- 
justice and tyranny, secretly conspired against his life. 
John Zimisces, their leader, and five others, were intro- 
duced during the night in a basket, through a window of 
the apartment in which Nicephorus was asleep. He 
25* 



294 MODERN HISTORr. 



Part IV. 



awoke just to see the daggers directed against his breast. 
The conspirators dragged him from his couch, and stabbed 
him at the feet of Zimisces, whom they proclaimed empe- 
ror in his place (a. d. 969). 

If heroic fortitude and courage ; if the habitual prac- 
tice of mildness, justice, generosity, in a word, of all pub- 
lic and private virtues, ever could obliterate a crime, this 
should be the case for Zimisces, who was undoubtedly one 
of the greatest among the successors of Constantine. The 
Greek historians seem to vie with each other in bestowing 
upon him the highest encomiums, and even the annals of 
northern nations have praised this illustrious emperor, 
who stopped their warlike and victorious hordes. For, it 
was at this juncture, that a formidable army of Rossi or 
Russians, having, under the conduct of their Duke Wen- 
ceslas, crossed the Danube, made an irruption into Bul- 
garia and Thrace, which they ravaged as far as Adri- 
anople. At first, Zimisces sent his ablest generals against 
them; afterwards, marching in person, he expelled the 
invaders from the towns and fortresses which they had 
taken, and driving all their detachments before him, at 
length forced them to a general engagement, near the 
city of Dorostolis, on the banks of the Danube. 

The multitude and natural bravery of the Russians on 
one side, and the valor and skill of the imperial legions 
on the other, rendered this battle one of the most obsti- 
nate and terrible in the annals of war. So great was the 
animosity of the combatants, that the advantage is said to 
liave successively passed from one army to the other not 
fewer than twelve times. The contest thus raged with 
unabated fury from morning until late in the evening, 
when the Russians began to waver, and Zimisces, redoub- 
ling his efforts, gained at last a complete victory. Three 
or four more battles, fought within a short time, saw him 
equally victorious, and almost destroyed the Russian 
forces. Being now deprived of all resource, the remains 
of their army came to the determination of abandoning all 



A. D. 960-1040. EASTERN NATIONS. 295 

their designs of conquest, and of retracing their steps to 
their own country. But, whilst they were retreating, 
another barbarous tribe surprised them in an ambuscade, 
and mercilessly put them all to the sword ( a. d. 971). 

Zimisces, on the contrary, returned in triumph to Con- 
stantinople, where he was received with extraordinary 
joy and magnificence. Shortly after, he marched against 
the eastern Saracens, who had availed themselves of his 
absence, to reconquer many places in Asia. The arri- 
val of Zimisces once more changed the state of affairs : 
wherever he apppeared, towns and fortresses were either 
compelled b}^ force or induced by promises to surrender. 
When he returned from this glorious expedition, as he 
was passing through a tract of land extremely rich, beau- 
tiful, and adorned with palaces, he was told that all these 
belonged to his minister Basil. "Behold," he exclaimed, 
** it is then to enrich one man, that the state is exhausted, 
that the armies undergo so many hardships ; that soldiers, 
officers, emperors, expose their lives and shed their blood 
in battles !" These words were, by perfidious friends, 
related to the minister, who, fearing an inquiry into his 
administration, determined to avoid, by the commission 
of a new crime, the disgrace with which he was threat- 
ened, and bribed the cup-bearer of the emperor to poison 
this excellent prince. The fatal draught being tendered 
and taken, Zimisces felt an inward fire, which soon mani- 
fested itself outwardly by carbuncles and a vomiting of 
blood. However, the sight of approaching death did not 
terrify his great soul : he spent his last days in preparing, 
by various pious exercises, to appear before the tribu- 
nal of God, and, after forbidding inquiries to be made 
about the author of his death, terminated, with the senti- 
ments of an humble penitent, a career which, with the 
exception of one day, had been that of a Christian hero 
(a.d.97o). 

After him, the throne was filled by two brothers and 
descendants of Basil the Macedonian, Basil II and Con- 



296 MODERN HISTORY. 



Pan IV. 



stantine "VIII. They reigned together and equally en- 
joyed the honors of the purple, but the exercise of the 
supreme authority was left entirely to Basil, who far sur- 
passed his brother in genius, ability and application to 
public affairs. He skilfully extricated himself from va- 
rious rebellions and civil wars excited in the beginning 
of his reign by some discontented generals. He then 
directed all his energies against the Bulgarians, who had 
been so long a match for the empire. Their courageous 
resistance protracted the war probably much longer than 
had been anticipated, a series of continual attacks and 
bloody engagements being hardly sufficient to subdue that 
nation and its leaders, who defended themselves with 
truly heroical fortitude : but so obstinately, and, it may 
be said, so cruelly bent was Basil on the entire reduc- 
tion of Bulgaria, that it finally passed under his sway, 
with all the treasures which the Bulgarians had amassed, 
during three hundred years, by war and pillage. 

In the East also, Basil extended considerably the boun- 
daries of the empire. Even age could not extinguish his 
martial spirit; and he was actually preparing for an ex- 
pedition against the Saracens of Sicily, when a violent 
fever carried him off in the sixty-eighth year of his life, 
and the fifty-first of his reign (a. d. 1025). This long in- 
terval had indeed been illustrated by many successful wars 
and by a firm administration ; but unfortunately, Basil II 
did not know how to win the affection and esteem of his 
subjects. Whilst his armies were every where victo- 
rious, the people were groaning under heavy taxes, and 
religion and humanity often condemned the actions of 
the monarch. The fifty years immediately following his 
decease beheld the rapid succession of fifteen emperors, 
most of them unworthy of notice. 

In the meantime, the vast monarchy founded by the 
Arabs had been going to decay. The indolence of the 
caliph of Bagdad encouraged the ambition of governors 
in different provinces to withdraw their allegiance from 



A. D. 1016-1066. DANISH KINGS IN ENGLAND, ETC. 297 

him, and to proclaim their own authority. In this man- 
ner were Africa and Persia gradually severed from the 
sway of the Abassides. Towards the end of the tenth 
century, they lost also both Palestine and Egypt, where 
the Fatimites (real or pretended descendants of Fatima, 
a daughter of Mahomet) established their domination, 
under the venerated title of caliphs (a. d. 972). 

Against these and other invaders, the caliphs of Bag- 
dad called to their assistance some of the Turkish tribes 
stationed in the neighborhood of the Caspian sea ; tribes 
famous for their exploits under their leader Seldjuk. At 
first, the caliphs had reason to applaud themselves for this 
measure. Those warlike tribes fought with great valor 
and success against the enemies of the reigning dynasty, 
and re-established its authority in several provinces ; but, 
towards the year 1040, they began to make conquests for 
themselves. Animated by the favorable result of their 
first attempts, they spread their wandering hordes over 
Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine and Asia Minor, and, de- 
feating the Greek emperor Romanus Diogenes in a great 
battle, took possession of those rich countries, which 
formed the renowned though short-lived empire of the 
Seljukian Turks. In a few years, Edessa, Jerusalem, 
Antioch, Tarsus and Nicea were subdued by them, and 
remained in their power until the time of the Crusades. 



DANISH KINGS IN ENGLAND— SAXON LINE RESTORED. 

A. D. 1016—1066. 

The bloody struggle of the Anglo-Saxons against the 
Danes, their obstinate enemies, had now lasted two hun- 
dred years, when Edmund, surnamed Ironside (from his 
great bodily strength), came to the throne of England in 
1016. This prince seemed destined to restore the inde- 
pendence of his country, having, within the short space 
of six months, fought no fewer than five battles, and 



298 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part IV. 



gained nearly as many victories over the Danish King 
Canute. But having been, through the perfidy or cow- 
ardice of a certain Count Edric, entirely defeated in the 
fifth battle, the noblemen of both parties, equally tired 
of this sanguinary warfare, obliged their sovereigns to 
come to a compromise, and divide the kingdom among 
themselves. Edmund died within a month after this 
treaty of pacification, and left Canute in possession of all 
England. 

The Saxons had no reason to repent for submitting to 
this foreign prince. No sooner did Canute see himself 
secure on the throne, than he became, from a turbulent 
warrior, a just and beneficent monarch. He often la- 
mented the bloodshed and misery which the Danish war 
had inflicted on the natives, and considered it his bounden 
duty to compensate their sufferings by a mild and equi- 
table administration. He always treated them with kind- 
ness, and, placing the two nations on a footing of equality, 
admitted them alike to offices of trust and emolument. 
By this means, he won the affection of all, even of his 
English subjects; whilst he also gained their admiration 
and esteem by his Christian virtues and sincere piety, of 
which he gave a striking proof on the following occasion : 

Being one day near the sea-shore, his courtiers, to flat- 
ter him, said that he was the king of kings, the master 
of both earth and sea. Canute took this opportunity to 
show how much he despised their foolish flattery. Sitting 
down, and addressing himself to the tide which was ad- 
vancing: ** I am thy master," he exclaimed ; *' mine also 
is the earth : I command thee, therefore, to stay where 
thou art, and not to move further and wet my feet." All 
present thought the king mad, to imagine that the sea was 
going to obey his orders : it continued to advance, and at 
length came to the feet of the monarch. Turning to his 
flatterers, he said : *' You see how far I am from being the 
master of all things. Learn hence that the power of kings 
is very inconsiderable. There is indeed no other king 



A. D. 1016-1066. DANISH KINGS IN ENGLAND, ETC. 299 

than Almighty God, by whom alone the heavens, the earth 
and the sea are governed." He rose at these words, went 
to the church of Winchester, and taking the crown from 
his head, placed it on the great crucifix in the cathedral, 
and never more wore it even at public ceremonies. 

Canute was King not only of England, but of Denmark 
also, and moreover acquired and exercised a sort of juris- 
diction over the Norwegians, the Swedes, the Welsh and 
the Scots. This vast extent of dominion rendered him one 
of the mightiest monarchs in Europe, whilst his truly royal 
qualities gained him universal respect from foreign princes. 
He died after a glorious reign of eighteen years (a. d. 
1035). His kingdoms were divided among his three sons, 
two of whom successively reigned in England, namely, 
Harold and Hardecanute. After their death, the English 
having determined to restore the Saxon line of their mon- 
archs, Edward, a brother to Edmund Ironside, was re- 
called from Normandy, where he had spent many years 
in exile, and, with general applause, ascended the throne 
of his fathers (a. d. 1042). 

If v/e estimate, as D. Lingard observes, the character 
of a sovereign by the test of popular affection, we must 
rank Edward among the best of princes. Whilst alive, 
the goodness of his heart, which he had improved in the 
time of banishment, was adored by his subjects; and, after 
death, his memory was bequeathed as an object of vene- 
ration to posterity. The blessings of his reign are the 
constant theme of ancient English writers; not that he 
displayed any of those brilliant qualities which attract the 
admiration of the world, while they inflict misery on the 
human race : but he exhibited the interesting spectacle of 
a king negligent of his private interests, and totally de- 
voted to the welfare of his people. To ward ofif foreign 
aggression, and restore the dominion of laws, to preserve 
peace, and promote religion, were the constant objects of 
his solicitude. He was pious, kind and compassionate, 
the protector of the weak, and the father of the poor ; 



300 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part IV. 



more willing to give than to receive, more inclined to 
pardon than to punish, and better pleased to bestow his 
own revenues in acts of charity, than profit by the labors 
of his subjects. 

Edward published a new compilation of the statutes of 
his Saxon predecessors, among which those favorable to 
the people held the first rank. Hence they were ever 
since called the laws and customs of the good King Ed- 
ward. This truly good and excellent monarch died in 
the beginning of the year 1066, and was canonized, about 
a century after, by Pope Alexander III. 



NORMANS IN ENGLAND.— WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 

A. D. 1066—1087. 

By the death of King Edward, England was replunged 
into the miseries of war. As he had died without issue, 
the British sceptre was claimed by several competitors, 
among whom Harold, the chief of the English nobility, 
and William, duke of Normandy, were the most power- 
ful. Setting aside the question which of the two was 
more entitled to the throne, both of them were worthy 
of it by their uncommon qualifications of body and mind, 
and, what was very singular, each one claimed it in vir- 
tue of the late king's will and appointment. 

Whilst William prepared to prosecute, by arms, his 
claims or his pretensions, Harold, being already present in 
the kingdom, was the first proclaimed and acknowledged 
as its sovereign. But he had the misfortune to be opposed 
at the same time, not only by a foreign rival, but also by 
his own brother Tostig, in whom he experienced, for 
having been accessary to his exile during the preceding 
reign, a bitter and deadly enemy. Tostig visited Nor- 
mandy, and arranged a plan of co-operation with the duke : 
having moreover sent deputies to the northern princes, he 
succeeded in obtaining the assistance of Hardrada, King 
of Norway. A gallant army in a fleet of three hundred 



A. D. 1056-1087. NORMANS IN ENGLAND, ETC. 301 

sail, unexpectedly appeared, landed without opposition, 
and subdued the province of Northumberland with York 
its capital. Harold, who was at that time awaiting the 
threatened descent of the Duke of Normandy, lost no 
time in marching against the Norwegians. He overtook 
them at Stamford Bridge, and completely foiled them in 
a bloody battle, in which both his perfidious brother and 
the Norwegian monarch were slain. The remnant of tlie 
vanquished were compelled to re-embark. 

Almost simultaneously with this great victory, intelli- 
gence arrived that the Normans had just landed on the 
coast of Sussex. William, having at length completed 
his vast preparations for the invasion of England, crossed 
the channel with a fleet of at least nine hundred vessels, 
which carried an army still more formidable for the valor 
than for the number of the combatants. The duke set 
them an example of wonderful daring. At tlie very mo- 
ment of the landing of his troops, happening to fall 
on the shore, and being afraid lest this should appear 
to weak minds a bad omen for the success of his enter- 
prise, he cried out with admirable presence of mind : ** I 
take possession of England ; it belongs to me ; I lay hold 
of it with both hands." At the receipt of the fatal news, 
Harold mustered his forces, and led them straight for- 
ward against the enemy. He had defeated the Norwe- 
gians on the 25th of September; on the 14th of the fol- 
lowing month, he arrived in sight of the Normans, at a 
place called Senlac, nine miles from Hastings. 

The next day, both armies prepared for battle. Harold 
posted his troops on the declivity of a hill in one compact 
body; William marshalled his host on the opposite emi- 
nence, and arranged with particular care the squadrons of 
his numerous cavalry, on which he principally rested his 
hope of success. After the usual discharge of arrows, 
the Norman knights fiercely advanced against their mo- 
tionless opponents. The shock v^^as dreadful ; but the 
English at every point opposed a vigorous and successful 
26 



302 MODERN HISTORY. Pa^t ,v. 

resistance, and their battle axe was so powerfully wielded, 
that the aggressors could not prevent their left wing from 
being thrown into confusion. Even a report was spread 
that William himself had fallen ; and the whole army 
was beginning to waver, when the duke, riding along the 
line, exclaimed : *' I am still alive, and, with the help of 
God, I shall gain the victory." This revived the courage 
of the Normans, and those among the English who had 
incautiously pursued the left wing too far, were inter- 
cepted and cut to pieces. 

The combat having now recommenced with fresh ani- 
mosity, William had recourse to a stratagem suggested to 
his mind by what had happened in the earlier part of the 
day. He ordered a division of his cavalry to feign flight; 
a considerable number of their opponents pursued them, 
and were instantly destroyed. This however, did not 
suffice to decide the blood_y contest: the main body of 
the English obstinately maintained their position, and, by 
always opposing to the Normans a solid and impenetrable 
mass, bade defiance to all their eiForts. The battle con- 
tinued in this manner, with doubtful success, from nine 
in the morning till about sun-set, when Harold, who had, 
like William, constantly animated his troops by word 
and example, was shot by an arrow which penetrated to 
the brain. He instantly fell among heaps of the dead, and 
the knowledge of his fall broke the spirit of the surviving 
English: at dusk they fled in utter confusion, dispersed 
through the wood, and were pursued, with great slaugh- 
ter, by their victorious enemy. 

Such was the ever memorable battle of Hastings, which 
put an end to the Saxon line of monarchs, and placed the 
Norman dynasty on the throne of England. On the side 
of the conquerors, more than one-fourth of their army, 
which amounted to almost 60,000 men, were left on the 
field ; the number of slain among the vanquished, although 
justly supposed to have been much greater, is unknown; 
all agree at least in pronouncing the victory of William 



A, D. 1066—1087. 



303 



complete and decisive. After refreshing his army by a 
few days repose, and taking Dover, he marched straight 
to London. His unexpected presence spread terror and 
dismay among the people, the nobility and the clergy, 
who were there assembled. They however received him 
with expressions of congratulation, and made him a ten- 
der of the crown, which after a short pause he accepted. 

From the best and most impartial historians it appears 
that the plan of William was that of a mild and mode- 
rate government. The first measures of his reign tended 
to sooth the feelings and to acquire the esteem of the 
English, Having, shortly after his coronation, made a 
tour through the kingdom, he every where scattered 
benefits around him, and graciously received the submis- 
sion of his new subjects. The privileges of the citizens 
were rather increased, nor was any change attempted in 
their laws and customs, unless imperiously required by 
existing circumstances. It is true that, in order to secure 
their obedience, he built and garrisoned castles in various 
parts of the country, and granted valuable rewards to his 
Norman followers ; but the former step was a precaution- 
ary measure which it would be unreasonable to blame in a 
conqueror ; and the latter transaction appears to have 
been so far conducted according to the strict rules of 
justice, as to give to no Englishman any just cause of 
complaint. 

These proceedings however displeased the natives, and 
William soon perceived that he had gained neither their 
favor nor confidence. As he had set out in the spring of 
1067, to visit his continental dominions, the English, no 
longer awed by his presence, thought it a happy opportu- 
nity to obtain their freedom. Their feelings of aversion 
for a foreign yoke were now highly excited by the impru- 
dence of the governors whom the Conqueror had left, and 
who, instead of adopting his system of conciliation, arro- 
gantly oppressed the people ; national animosity daily 



304 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part IV. 



increased, discontent became general, and rebellion 
seemed every where inevitable. 

William, being informed of all this, returned to Eng- 
land with a secret determination to crush by severity, a 
people whom he could not gain by mildness. In fact, 
from this time forward, he laid a heavy hand upon his 
English subjects, and treated them with that rigor which 
he thought the right of conquest justified. He obliged 
them to extinguish their fires and candles at an early 
hour (eight o'clock) in the evening, the signal for which 
was given by a bell called the mrfeiv {couvre-feu) ; nor 
were they permitted to rekindle their fires till the morn- 
ing bell, w^iich rang at four o'clock. His policy suffered 
no Englishman to hold any place of trust. By means of 
fines, land taxes, banishment, and sometimes capital exe- 
cutions for crimes of state, William had the disposal 
both of property and honors, and secured in his own 
hands the whole strength of the nation. 

If these measures terrified some of the natives, others 
raised the standard of insurrection in different parts of 
the kingdom. But nothing could surprise William. His 
vigilance, firmness and activity disconcerted all the 
plans, or baffled all the measures of the insurgents ; and 
his good fortune so constantly prevailed, that every at- 
tempt to ruin his power, served only to establish it more 
firmly. He maintained it with equal success against 
foreign enemies, the Scots, the Danes and the French. 
In fine, after having gloriously reigned during forty-one 
years in Normandy, and twenty-one in England, he died 
in 1087; odious indeed to many, on account of his se- 
verity, but still, in point of natural talents, of enterpris- 
ing spirit, of political and military achievements, un- 
doubtedly one of the first princes, and perhaps the most 
conspicuous sovereign of his age. His posterity, either 
in the right, or in the female line, has ever since occu- 
pied the throne of Great Britain. 



A. D. 1016-1089. NORMANS IN ITALY. '305 



NOKMANS IN ITALY.— a. d. 1016—1089. 

The subjugation of England was not the only conquest 
made by the Normans in the eleventh century ; during the 
same period, other warriors of the same nation equally as- 
tonished Europe by their exploits in Italy. A little before 
the year 1016, forty Normans, returning from a pilgrim- 
age to the Holy Land, happened to stop at Salernum, a 
maritime town of Campania, at the very time when it 
was closely besieged by the Saracens. These pilgrims 
were men of remarkable size, warlike appearance and 
still greater courage. Having penetrated into the town, 
they asked for arms and horses, and, making a sudden 
sally against the besiegers, slew many of them, put the 
rest to flight, and by a signal victory obliged them to 
abandon the siege. Both the prince and the inhabitants 
of Salernum exceedingly admired their valor, loaded 
them with presents, and endeavored to retain such useful 
warriors in their country. But they refused, alleging 
that they had fought for no other end than the glory of 
God and the honor of his religion. However, the Italians 
prevailed upon them to carry to their countrymen differ- 
ent kinds of excellent fruit, as proofs of the fertility of 
the land, and an inducement to come to Italy. 

To a warlike and enterprising people, proposals so flat- 
tering could not fail to be acceptable. Normans after 
Normans flocked to the peninsula, and, by defending it 
against its enemies and invaders, began to acquire in 
that delightful country rich and honorable settlements. 
Among these fortunate adventurers, there was a whole 
family of heroes, consisting of the twelve sons of a cer- 
tain Norman lord, called Tancrede, who, with the help 
of some hundreds of their countrymen^ performed most 
surprising exploits. Sometimes united with the Lombards 
and Italians against the Greeks, sometimes with the 
Greeks against the Saracens, they became a match for 
26* 



306 MODERN HISTORY. Pa,t jy 

all, defeated numerous armies, took well defended and 
fortified towns, and subdued extensive provinces. 

Of these heroic brothers, the most illustrious were : 
William Iron-arm, who, by incredible exertions and 
courage, solidly established the Normans in Apulia 
(a d. 1043) ; Robert Guiscard, who stripped the Greeks 
of their last possessions in the same province (1080); and 
Roger, who expelled the Saracens for ever from Sicily 
(1089). All these conquered territories formed, when 
united, a powerful and flourishing state, which lasted 
upwards of one hundred years. During that interval, 
the Norman princes who ruled over it, continued to 
inflict severe losses on the emperors of Constantinople, 
but were themselves, in the end, obliged to yield to the 
emperors of Germany. 

CHIVALRY, PARTICULARLY IN SPAIN— RISE OF THE 
KINGDOM OF PORTUGAL.— a. d. 1045—1095. 

The age which immediately preceded the Crusades, 
seemed to have been eminently the age of chivalry 
properly so called. The order of chivalry was composed 
of Knights-Errant, who rode through all parts of the 
country, in complete armor, for the purpose of redressing 
grievances, and of protecting innocent, weak and afflicted 
persons against tyranny and oppression. Their origin 
may be traced to the reign of Charlemagne, or there- 
abouts; their decline must be referred to the twelfth cen- 
tury, which gave rise to many military orders, of far 
greater merit and celebrity than private knighthood ; 
however, during the epoch of which we are now speak- 
ing, chivalry, notwithstanding the abuses that occasion- 
ally attended it, proved truly beneficial to humanity and 
social order in Europe, especially when there was ques- 
tion of defending Christians against infidels. 

Owing to its peculiar state of constant warfare against 
the Moors, Christian Spain possessed numbers of those 



A. D. 1045—1095. 



ETC. 307 



generous knights ever ready to shed their blood in the 
cause of national glory, religion and justice. Among 
them, the foremost in heroic ardor and fortitude was 
the illustrious Rodriguez Diaz of Bivar, v/ho, during the 
fifty last years of the eleventh century, did not cease to 
fight with wonderful success the enemies of his country. 
All Europe continually resounded with the fame of his 
prowess and repeated triumphs, of the battles he had 
fought, the victories he had won, the princes he had con- 
quered, the towns he had subdued : exploits so much the 
more astonishing, as they were effected entirely by his 
personal exertions, and frequently performed without 
any assistance from his sovereign. His fame extended 
even to Asia; and the Mahometan king of Persia sent 
deputies to the Christian knight of Spain, to congratulate 
him upon his glorious achievements. The name of Cidy 
or Seid (lord), under which he is known in history as 
well as poetry, was given him for the first time by the 
ambassadors of five Moorish chieftains whom he had just 
defeated in a great battle. 

It was chiefly with the help of this great warrior that 
King Alfonso VI. succeeded in the most important and 
difficult expedition as yet attempted by the Christians 
against the Moors. This" prince cherished an ardent 
desire to reconquer Toledo, the ancient capital of the 
Goths, which had been in the power of their enemies for 
three hundred and seventy-two years, and which con- 
tained nearly three hundred thousand inhabitants. No 
sooner was his intention made known, than, from all 
parts of Spain and other states of Christendom, multi- 
tudes of warriors and knights flocked to the standards of 
the Spanish monarch, to share with him in this glorious 
enterprize. The siege was long and perilous, and the 
defence was not less vigorous than the attack. At length 
the bravery of the Saracens yielded to the valor of the 
Christians, and, in the spring of 1085, Toledo, with many 
other towns, surrendered to Alfonso, who directly made 



308 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part IV. 



it the capital of his kingdom and the seat of his resi- 
dence, instead of Burgos, the chief city of old Castile. 
Among the foreign knights who had come to unite 
their efforts with those of the Spaniards for the achieve- 
ment of this great conquest, the most distinguished were 
Counts Raymond and Henry of Burgundy, of the royal 
family of the Capetians in France. In every battle, 
they displayed a valor worthy of their rank, and on every 
occasion evinced such noble feelings, as to attract general 
esteem, and particularly that of the Spanish king. In 
order to secure their subsequent services, Alfonso gave 
them his daughters in marriage, and loaded them with 
honors which time rather increased. The posterity of 
Raymond inherited the throne of Castile, and occupied it 
until it passed, by alliance, to the house of Austria, in 
the beginning of the sixteenth century. Henry was in- 
vested with extensive power over the more western pro- 
vinces, which had been taken from the Moors, and thus 
laid the foundation of the Portuguese monarchy, so 
called from Porto, its first capital (a. d. 1095). This 
new state, however, did not acquire the title of kingdom, 
until forty-four years later, when Alphonso Henriquez, 
the worthy son of Count Henry, having gloriously de- 
feated five Saracen kings on the same day, was himself 
proclaimed king by his troops on the field of battle. 

AFFAIR OF INVESTITURES. 

During these merely civil revolutions in many parts of 
Christendom, transactions of a different nature engaged 
the public mind in Germany and Northern Italy. The 
custom had been introduced, in various places, and eager- 
ly adopted by the German emperors, of putting the newly 
elected bishops and abbots in possession of their bene- 
fices, by giving them the ring and the crosier, the symbols 
of pastoral authority. As this ceremony, called investi- 
ture, seemed to imply the conferring of spiritual jurisdic- 



AFFAIR OF INVESTITURES. 309 

tion by temporal princes, it was, after due examination, 
justly considered as an encroachment on the rights of 
the church. Not content, however, with exercising it, 
the emperor Henry IV carried on a shameful and most 
scandalous traffic in ecclesiastical dignities, bestowing 
them, not on worthy candidates, but on those who offered 
him the largest sums of money. Pope Gregory VII, in- 
veighed against these crying abuses with ardent zeal and 
unabated constancy. But both his entreaties and expos- 
tulations were disregarded ; and the wicked emperor, 
instead of amending his conduct, convened an assembly 
at Worms, in which, v«^ith a body of schismatical asso- 
ciates, he presumed to pass sentence of deposition against 
the Pontiff (a. d. 1076). 

This outrageous act served only to increase the zeal of 
Gregory. He not only continued to govern the church 
with Apostolic vigor, but even thought that his duty re- 
quired more than he had hitherto done. With the advice 
of a numerous council, and taking into consideration 
both the incorrigibleness of Henry and the repeated com- 
plaints of his oppressed subjects, he excommunicated him, 
and pronounced him fallen from his royal dignity ; at the 
same time declaring the Germans no longer bound by 
their former oath of allegiance to him. Singular as the 
power may appear which Gregory then exercised, the 
general opinion of his cotemporaries admitted that such 
power lay within the sphere of papal jurisdiction, and it 
was supported by the civil and common jurisprudence of 
the times.* 

* This point has been, from a variety of public and authentic docu- 
ments, set in the clearest light by the learned and judicious author of a 
work recently published in Paris, entitled : " Pouvoir du Pape au 
moyeii age." It is likewise solidly proved by Count de Maistre (Du 
Pape,livre ri, ch. x.) ; by Abbe Jager, (in his Introduction to the life of 
Gregory VII, translated from the German), etc. Nay more, it is ex- 
pressly admitted by many celebrated Protestant writers, such as Leib- 
nitz, Dc Jure Suprematus, Pseffel, Fred. Eichorn, etc. and even by the 
infidels Bolingbroke and Voltaire, This alone must appear sufficient 
to vindicate the conduct of Pope Gregory with regard to the emperor 
Henry IV, and of some of his successors towards other sovereigns of the 
same stamp. See, moreover, Note H. 



310 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part IV. 



At the news of the sentence pronounced by the Pope, 
the lords and princes of Germany assembled in great 
numbers, in order to appoint another emperor in the 
place of Henry. The distressed monarch perceived the 
gathering storm, and saw no means of averting it but by 
a reconciliation with the See of Rome. He therefore 
departed in great haste for Italy, fully determined to 
effect this desired reconciliation on any terms. Gregory 
had left Rome, and advanced as far as Canosse, a castle 
of Lombardy, on his way to Germany, where he was ex- 
pected by the princes. Henry, in a penitential garb, 
presented himself before the gates of the castle, humbly 
begging to be admitted into the presence of the Pontiff, 
acknowledging his guilt, and, wdth every mark of true 
repentance, expressing his readiness to make all the satis- 
faction in his power. 

Gregory, who had more than once experienced the 
insincerity and inconstancy of the emperor, kept him, by 
way of trial, in suspense for three days: on the fourth 
day, he gave him an audience, received his submission, 
and absolved him on certain conditions. But the repen- 
tance of Henry did not last more than fifteen days. 
Having assembled a numerous army, he refused to com- 
ply with the terms which he had accepted, and resumed 
his former course of violence against church and state. 
At length the German lords, disgusted with the faithless 
and wicked monarch, proceeded to the election of another, 
and chose Rudolph, Duke of Suabia, for their sovereign. 
Still, Henry remained master of the empire, his competi- 
tor having perished in a battle near Mersburg, after three 
years of a disputed succession (a. d. 1080). 

Elated with success, the conqueror marched at the head 
of his troops into Italy, and besieged Rome, which he 
took after a long siege, more however by bribery than by 
force of arms. He entered the Lateran palace, and en- 
deavored to cause the excommunicated bishop of Ravenna, 
Guibert, to be declared Pope, under the name of Cle- 



REMARKS ON THE MIDDLE AGES, 31 1 

ment III. In the meantime, Gregory had retreated into 
the strong castle of St. Angelo, where he remained 
secure till the arrival of Robert Guiscard, the valiant 
leader of the Normans, who compelled the emperor to 
retire with his anti-pope. The lawful Pontiff was thus 
left master of the city; but, as party violence rendered 
it either unsafe or unpleasant for him to remain there, 
he removed first to Mount Cassino, and thence to Sa- 
lerno, where he was taken dangerously ill. In his last 
moments, he uttered these words: *'I have loved justice, 
and have hated iniquity; wherefore I die in a strange 
land;" after which he calmly expired, on the 25th of 
May, 1085. 

Far different was the end of his violent persecutor. 
The obstinate perseverance of Henry in the schism kept 
up a strong opposition against him in Germany; so much 
so, that his own sons openly revolted, and obliged him to 
abdicate the crown. The dethroned monarch retired to 
Liege, where he died shortly after, like the ancient per- 
secutors of the church, a prey to excessive grief. He 
had reigned about fifty years, and during that time, had 
been present in sixty-two battles, in most of which he 
was victorious. His exploits, his bravery, and his talents 
might have ranked him among the greatest emperors of 
Germany, had he not disgraced himself by his perfidy, 
and by yielding to detestable and unruly passions. The 
question of investitures was settled after his death: in 
the year 1122, the emperor Henry V agreed to resign the 
privilege of giving the ring and the crosier, and this 
transaction was solemnly confirmed by the first General 
Council of Lateran, in 1123. 



REMARKS ON THE MIDDLE AGES. 

The ninth, tenth and eleventh centuries, are commonly 
called the middle, and, by a numerous class of writers, 
the dark ages. To know whether, or how far this second 



312 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part IV. 



appellation is correct, deserves a particular investigation, 
and will be the object of the following remarks. 

In the first place, it must be confessed that, a short 
time after the reign of Charlemagne, ignorance began anew 
to make great progress in Europe, especially among no- 
bles, many of whom, being exclusively addicted to the 
profession of arms, even boasted of their want of instruc- 
tion and literary knowledge.* But never perhaps were 
more strenuous efforts made to keep alive the sacred 
flame of science, and promote the instruction of youth 
than were made by the Church at the period of which we 
are speaking.t Besides smaller schools for children in 
country parishes, there were in large cities, in monaste- 
ries, and in episcopal houses, different institutions in 
which a relish for study and learning was carefully pre- 
served. In these, besides the Holy Scriptures and Chris- 
tian doctrine, the students could learn what was then 
termed the seven liberal arts; Grammar, Logic, Rhetoric, 
Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy and Music. Many 
schools of this kind are known to have existed in Italy, 
England, France, Germany, etc. such as those of Rome, 
Lyons, Paris, York, Oxford, Fuld, Ratisbon, Paderborn,i 

* Many deeds and legal instruments of those ages are found, which 
terminate thus : "And the aforesaid lord has declared that he did not 
know how to sign his name, owing to his being a nobleman." 

t See the decrees of Popes Eugenius II, Leo IV, etc. in the councils 
of Rome, a. d. 826, 853, etc.; — the canons of the councils of Mentzand 
Chalons, A. D. 813; of Paris, 829; of Valence, 855; of Toul, 859, etc.— 
And the statutes of Theodulphe, Bishop of Orleans ; of Herard, Arch- 
bishop of Tours ; of Riculfus, Bishop of Soissons, about the same 
time, etc. Merely to quote one or two of these decrees ; the Council of 
Toul, in the tenth canon, earnestly entreats princes and recommends to 
bishops to establish every where public schools, Jbr the teaching of both 
sacred science and polite literature : and Theodulphe, Bishop of Or- 
leans, expresses himself thus, in the 20th Art. of his Ist Capitular: 
" Let the priests establish schools in towns and villages for the instruc- 
tion of children, and not refuse to receive and teach those who are per- 
sonally addressed to them. But in so doing, let them require no salary, 
nor accept any thing but what may be voluntarily and charitably 
offered by the parents." 

I In Paderbornensi ecclesia publica floruerunt studia, quando ibi mu- 
sic! fuerunt, et Dialectici enituerunt, Rhetorici, clarique Grammatici. 
Ubi Mathematici claruerunt, et Astronomici habebantur, Physici atque 



REMARKS ON THE MIDDLE AGES. 313 

etc. They did not, it is true, possess men like St. Basil 
and St. John Chrysostoni, Fenelon and Bossuet, Newton 
and Leibnitz ; yet it cannot be denied that they produced 
many learned writers and eminent scholars, who might 
have become models for posterity in point of literature 
and learning, had they enjoyed the number of books and 
other advantages which we now possess. 

Whatever may be the boasted diffusion and depth of 
knowledge at the present day, it may certainly be doubted 
whether many persons could be found superior or equal in 
this respect to such men as Lupus, Abbot of Ferrieres, a 
writer of the ninth century, in whose treatises and letters 
all impartial critics acknowledge an immense fund of 
erudition ; or St. Brunon, Archbishop of Cologne in the 
tenth century, whose biographers relate that there was no 
part of Latin and Greek literature, no branch of sacred 
and profane learning, with which he was not familiar.* 
The same, or nearly the same, may be said of the follow- 
ing authors, as their own writings testify: Agobardus, 
Archbishop of Lyons, who died in 840 ; — Rabanus, Arch- 
bishop of Mentz, 856 ; — Paschasius Radbertus, a monk, 
865 ; — St. Ado, Archbishop of Vienna, in France, 875 ; — 
Anastasius, the Roman librarian, 880 ; — Hincmar, Arch- 
bishop of Rheims, 882; — Remigius of Auxerre, a monk, 
908; — Atto, Bishop of Vercelli, 960; — Flodoardus, a 
canon in the church of Rheims, 966; — Sylvester II, 

Geometrici. Vig^uit Horatius, magnusque Virgilius, Sallustius et Sta- 
tius. Apud Thomassin. Discipl. de VEgl. Part ii. Liv, i. ch. 99, n. 2 ; — 
vol. u.fol.p. 638. 

In the same chapter and in other chapters of the same work, the 
learned Oratorian shows that studies were also very flourishing in the 
schools of Worms, Paris, Lyons, and still more so in that of Rome, of 
which he speaks at length, and then says : " Let us conclude that the 
Pontifical palace of Rome, was the palace of polite literature, and the 
sanctuary of Ecclesiastical learning." ch. 100, n. 3. See also on this 
subject, Digby's Ages of Faith, vol. ii, part in, ch. 5 and 6. 

* Preeter Sacras litteras, quidquid historici, oratores, poetag atque 
philosophi, novum et grande perstrepunt, diligentissirae cum doctoribus 
cujuscumque linguae perscrutatus est. Nullum ])enitus erat studioruin 
liberalium genus, in omni Graeca vel Latina eloquentia, quod ingenii 
sui vivacitatem aufugeret. — jipud Thomass. lib. cit. c. 99, n. 3. 

27 



314 MODERN HISTORY. Part IV. 

Pope, 1003; — Abbo, a monk and Abbot of Fleury, 
1004;— Fulbert, Bishop of Chartres, 1029;— St. Peter 
Damian, Cardinal, 1072; — St. Gregory, VII, Pope, 
1085; — Lanfrancus, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1089; — 
St. Bruno, founder of the Carthusian order, 1101; — St. 
Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1108; — and many 
others, equally belonging to the clergy or to religious 
orders. 

With regard to laymen, although generally less fond of 
study and less instructed, it ought not to be imagined 
that they were plunged in a state of barbarism and com- 
plete darkness — far from it; an attentive perusal of the 
history of the middle ages will rather lead to the conclu- 
sion, that, without knowing how to display much ele- 
gance in their manners, and to appreciate the flowing 
periods of Demosthenes and Cicero, they had, in their 
noble simplicity, as much good sense and judgment as 
we have in this our age of light, and frequently more 
than we manifest. They knew, not only how to prefer 
religion and faith before all things, but also how to ex- 
amine attentively the most difficult matters, to reason 
with accuracy, to act with prudence, to succeed in com- 
plicated negotiations, and adopt the best course in the 
most perplexing circumstances : witness, among others, 
Kings Alfred, Edgar and Canute in England, Hugh Ca- 
pet in France, Alfonso III in Spain, Otho I in Germany, 
and John of Gortz and Luitprand, the ambassadors of 
Otho I to the courts of Cordova and Constantinople. 

Nor did our ancestors want sagacity and genius for 
useful discoveries and improvements, since many of this 
kind were made during the middle ages. It was at the 
end of the tenth century, that Gerbert, preceptor to King 
Robert of France, afterwards Archbishop of Ravenna, 
and at length Pope, under the name of Sylvester II, in- 
vented clocks with a balance, which continued in use till 
pendulums began to be employed in 1650. To him also 
Arithmetic was greatly indebted for its progress. About 
the same time, lanterns were first used, and paper made 



REMARKS ON THE MIDDLE AGES. 315 

of cotton rags. A few years after (towards 1022), Guy, 
a monk of Arezzo in Italy, invented and introduced into 
the church singing the gamut, or scale of musical notes, 
by which a child can learn in a few months, what no per- 
son before could learn without several years of study. 
With regard to mechanical arts, it is enough to read the 
history of the siege of Jerusalem in 1099, to know what 
wonderful and complicated machines of every description 
were constructed by the first crusaders, men consequently 
of the middle ages. 

Still, if credit were to be given to certain authors, the 
inhabitants of Western Europe, at the time of which we 
are speaking, must have been mere barbarians, compared 
with the Arabs, to whom alone, it is said, belonged the 
honor of cultivating letters and the arts and sciences. 
This notion is altogether false and unjust. The Arabs in- 
deed, whether in the empire of Bagdad or in the kingdom 
of Cordova, distinguished themselves by a great show of 
politeness and magnificence, by some happy discoveries, 
and the brilliant dreams of their imagination ; but that 
they were superior, in point of solid acquirements, to 
the Christian nations of Europe, it would be difficult to 
prove, and may be justly doubted.* Their metaphysical 
science was made up of subtleties taken from the catego- 
ries of Aristotle, instead of being a source of true learn- 
ing; their astronomical observations were blended with 
the ridiculous theories of astrology, and their prejudices 

* Even at the time when arts and sciences were in their most flourish- 
ing state among the Arabs, namely, under Al-Mamon, the son and 
second successor of Aaron-Al-Raschid ; that caliph was himself obliged 
to acknowledge the superiority of Christian scholars over his subjects. 
In his own palace, a Greek slave, who had formerly studied mathe- 
matics in Constantinople, confounded all the doctors and masters of the 
court. Whilst all present stood astonished, the slave said that there 
were many persons among his countrymen more skilful than himsell', 
above all, a certain philosopher, called Leo, from whom he had received 
lessons. In fact as a geometer and an astronomer, Leo had not his 
equal in the whole empire. The caliph endeavored, but in vain, by 
the most flattering letters and promises, to bring him over to Bagdad : 
the Emperor Theophilus would never let him go, nor consent to deprive 
his own capital of so distinguished a scholar. — See Lebeau, Hist, du 
Bas. Einp. vol. xyi,p. 441-446. 



316 MODERN HISTORY. 



Part IV. 



against anatomy and surgery greatly impeded the pro- 
gress of the art of medicine. They did not improve more 
in historical composition, which was characterized in those 
days by strange remarks, a bombastic style, and exagge- 
rated accounts. Hence, the learned author of a recent 
history of the Crusades, does not hesitate to prefer the 
plain and unaffected narratives of the first Crusade, left 
by some Christian writers of the eleventh century, to the 
Arabian records of the same epoch.* 

Another, and a still more striking vindication of the 
middle ages against the charge of complete darkness, is 
to be found in the great number of splendid churches 
that were then built throughout Christendom, many of 
which still exist ; for, as Felibien has justly remarked, the 
state of architecture has always been in every country a 
sure proof of the degree of perfection in which the other 
arts flourished. Not only was this advantage possessed 
by England during the reign of the great Alfred, but also 
by other countries under less favorable circumstances, 
particularly on the following occasion. A little before 
the close of the tenth century, an opinion had been enter- 
tained by many simple persons, that the world would end 
with the year 1,000, nor had the writings of learned men 
been able to remove that imaginary fear. But when all 
saw the eleventh century begin without accident, joy took 
the place of terror, and the gratitude of the people to- 
wards Almighty God prompted them to repair churches, 
or build new ones still more worthy, by their splendor, 
of being consecrated to his honor. 

Then, indeed, arose in different parts of Christendom, 
those Gothic temples, the appearance of which, at once 
grand, majestic and imposing, will never be eclipsed by 
the flimsy elegance of most of our modern edifices. 
Then were laid in many European cities the foundations 
of those splendid cathedrals in which we still admire the 
symmetrical rows of beautiful pillars supporting immense 

* Michaut, Hist, des Croisades, vol. i,p. 519. 



REMARKS ON THE MIDDLE AGES. 317 

arched roofs, the towering steeples, and a thousand other 
ornaments: monuments the more astonishing and worthy 
of admiration, as they are found even in many inconside- 
rable cities, and bear testimony to the grand ideas, as 
well as the zeal and piety of our European ancestors. 

In fine, it was also during the middle ages that, through 
missionaries from Italy, Germany, France, England, etc. 
northern Europe received the light of the gospel ; that 
the Normans, the Hungarians, the Danes, the Swedes, 
the Russians, the Lithuanians, the Poles, etc. began at the 
same time to become Christian and civilized nations. 
But how could this, we may ask, have been effected by 
any of their contemporaries, had those contemporaries 
been themselves mere barbarians ? How could so ardu- 
ous a task ever have been undertaken and performed, 
except by men equally zealous and learned, equally pos- 
sessed of heroic virtues and great mental acquirements.^ 
And indeed, that such were the qualifications of the mis- 
sionaries who subjected these nations to the laws of Chris- 
tianity, we learn from all the documents of that period. 

From this variety of evidence and facts, we are cer- 
tainly authorized to conclude, in the first place, that the 
opinion commonly entertained about the middle ages is 
egregiously wrong; their pretended state of stupidity 
and barbarism never having had any existence, except in 
the theories of modern invention : and secondly, that it 
is to the Catholic Church, to her Popes, Bishops and 
Monks, that we stand indebted for the preservation of 
civilization, literature, arts and sciences in Europe. The 
complete revival of letters came from the same source, 
and the progress of ignorance, after having been vigor- 
ously opposed even in the most difticult times, was at 
length effectually checked (a. d. 1179 — 1215), by the de- 
crees of Popes Alexander III and Innocent III, in the 
third and fourth councils of Lateran ; in virtue of which 
decrees, colleges and universities began to spring up in 
every part of Christendom. 
27* 



NOTES, 



NOTE A.— PAGE 49. 

ON THE CHAKACTER AND DEATH OF SENECA, LUCAN, £TC. 

This Seneca, surnamed the Philosopher, to distinguish him from his 
father Seneca, called the Orator, was a man of great genius and learn- 
ing. He left a great number of moral treatises which contain beautiful 
maxims, mingled with many errors. His labored and refined style 
greatly contributed to the decline of good taste and true eloquence in 
Rome. As to his character, although he was possessed of many moral 
virtues, his weak connivance at several vices and crimes of Nero, his 
vanity, his usuries and immense riches, shovv^ed that his boasted philo- 
sophy consisted more in theory than in practice. In compliance with 
the orders of Nero, he died by taking poison and opening his veins. 

The death of Lucan the poet, his nephew, was very similar : in obe- 
dience to the same tyrannical orders, he also caused his veins to be 
opened. After having lost a great quantity of blood, finding his hands 
and feet grow cold, and the extremities of his body almost dead, whilst 
the parts nearer the heart still retained their natural warmth ; he recol- 
lected the description he had given in his Pharsalia of a death very like 
his own, and recited from it the following lines, which were his last 
words : 

Scinditur avulsus nee, sicut vulnere, sanguis 
Emicuit lentus: ruptis cadit undique venis. 
***** Pars ultima trunci 
Tradidit in letum vacuos vitalibus artus. 
At tumidus qua pulmo jacet, qua viscera fervent, 
Hseserunt ibi fata diCi ; luctataque multum 
Hac cum parte viri vix omnia membra tulerunt. 

Lucani Pharsalia^ III, 

* * * * Asunder flies the man. 
No single wound the gaping rupture seems, 
Where trickling crimson wells in slender streams ; 
But from an opening horrible and wide, 
A thousand vessels pour the bursting tide. 



320 NOTES. 

Soon from the lower parts the spirits fled, 

And motionless th' exhausted limbs lay dead. 

Not so the nobler regions, where the heart 

And heaving lungs their vital powers exert: 

There lingering late, and long conflicting, life 

Rose against fate, and stiff" maintained the strife. 

Driven out at length, unwillingly and slow. 

She left her mortal house, and sought the shades below. 

Rowe. 

Many others, in the same corrupt age, either anticipated by a voluntary 
death, or consented to execute upon themselves the sentence of their 
condemnation : and it is worthy of remark, that the frequency of suicide 
always bears a proportion to the depravity of the time and country in 
which it is practised, it being one of the basest and most heinous crimes 
that can be committed. One of the basest, because, far from being a 
mark of true fortitude, it is, on the contrary, a sure mark of pusillan- 
imity, and of a mind easily overcome by misfortune ; as Martial the 
poet has said: "Fortiter ille facit, qui miser esse potest — he is truly 
courageous, who can bear to be unfortunate." One of the most heinous, 
against God, whose sovereign dominion over life and death it violates 
by a bold usurpation ; against society, which it unjustly deprives of its 
members ; and against the perpetrator himself, whom it consigns to ever- 
lasting misery, in exchange for a temporal evil : for such, and no other, 
must be the result of suicide, not only on the principles of divine reve- 
lation, but even on those of reason and natural light. Whence Virgil, 
in his ^neid, speaking of the place of torments appointed in Tartarus 
for those who have committed suicide, very justly exclaims: 

***** Quam vellent aethere in alto, 
Nunc et pauperiem et duros perferre labores I — Mneid, b. vi. 

The whole passage stands thus in Dryden : 

The next in place, and punishment, are they 

Who prodigally threw their souls away : 

Fools, who repining at their wretched state, 

And loathing anxious life, suborn'd their fate. 

With late repentance now they would retrieve 

The bodies they forsook, and wish to live ; 

Their pains and poverty desire to bear. 

To view the light of heaven, and breathe the vital air. 

But fate forbids ; the Stygian floods oppose. 

And, with nine circling streams, the captive soul enclose. 



NOTES. 321 

Thus the guilt and folly of suicide were acknowledged by the wisest 
of Pagans ; and if the contrary opinion was more prevalent among 
them, it must be ascribed to the depravity of the times, and to that al- 
most universal darkness which an absurd polytheism had spread over 
the principles of morality; a circumstance this, which renders the ad- 
mission of suicide among Christians still more unjustifiable. As to the 
equally criminal and brutal practice of duelling, so common in our 
days, it was totally unknown to the civilized nations of antiquity, and 
originated in the ferocity of those barbarians of Northern Europe, who, 
in tlie fifth century, overthrew the Roman empire. 

NOTE B.— PAGE 62. 

ON THE HISTORIAN JOSEPHUS. 

Nearly all that we relate concerning the Jewish war, being taken 
from Josephus, it will not be amiss to make some remarks respecting 
that great historian ; referring, for a fuller account of his life, to his 
own writings. 

Josephus was born of an illustrious Jewish family. From his youth, 
he appeared still more remarkable for the qualities of his mind than for 
the nobleness of his extraction, and showed so accurate a knowledge of 
the Mosaic law, that, even at the age of fourteen years, he was con- 
sulted on important matters by the doctors themselves. Having, in 
course of time, acquired more and more credit and authority among his 
countrymen, he made every effort to prevent them from rebelling against 
the Romans ; and, when he found his endeavors of no avail, he re- 
solved at least to retard, as long as possible, the moment of their ruin. 
He was appointed by them governor of Galilee, one of the Jewish 
provinces most exposed, from its position, to the attacks of the enemy. 

Notwithstanding many obstacles, Josephus, by his ability, prudence 
and firmness, kept that province in good order for some time, but the 
approach of a powerful array commanded by Vespasian, compelled him 
to retire into Jotapat, the best fortified town in the country. Though 
pursued and besieged by the Romans, he defended the town, with as- 
tonishing skill and valor during forty-seven days, at the end of which, 
Jotapat was taken by surprise, and its inhabitants were put to the 
sword, with the exception of some hundred women and children. Jo- 
sephus took refuge in a deep cavern, where he concealed himself with 
forty of his soldiers. Three days after, the place of his retreat having 
been discovered by the conquerors, he would have immediately intrust- 
ed himself to the generosity of Vespasian, had he not been prevented 
from surrendering by the threats of his companions. These furious 
men, to avoid falling into the hands of a victorious enemy, resolved to 
kill themselves with their own swords; Josephus prevailed on them 



322 NOTES. 

rather to die by the hands of others, proposing to them to decide by lot 
who should be first killed by his companion, who should follow next, 
and so on to the last : a proposal, after all, not less exceptionable than 
their first design. They followed it however, till Josephus, most fortu- 
nately, remained with only one man, whom he persuaded to surrender 
with him to the Romans ; (see Josephus himself, De Bello Judaico, 
lib. Ill, c. 7 and S.) 

He was kindly treated by Vespasian, and still more so by Titus, who 
had conceived a great esteem for his merit. He afterwards followed 
this prince to the siege of Jerusalem, where he repeatedly exhorted his 
countrymen to imitate his example, and to deserve the clemency of the 
Romans by an entire submission ; but, far from being successful in the 
attempt, he was insulted, and, on one occasion even wounded ; he would 
have been either slain or taken prisoner, had not Titus speedily sent a 
body of soldiers to his assistance, who succeeded in carrying him back 
to the camp. After the destruction of Jerusalem, he went with the 
same prince to Rome, where he continued to be much honored by him 
and his father Vespasian. 

It was during his residence in Rome, that Josephus finished his many 
historical works which display a talent for narrative, a warmth of ima- 
gination and a beauty of style, that have gained for him the surname of 
the Grecian Livy. The most celebrated of his writings is the " History 
of the Jewish War," in seven books. It obtained the unqualified ap- 
probation of Vespasian, Titus and King Agrippa, who were all per- 
fectly acquainted with the facts there mentioned. 

Indeed nothing is wanting to render that work both highly interesting 
and credible. It is the history of a war unparalleled in the annals of 
nations ; a narrative of notorious as well as extraordinary events, 
written by one who had been an eye-witness, nay more, one of the 
chief actors in them ; a narrative published at a time, when it could 
have been easily contradicted by a thousand other witnesses, had it 
been deemed at variance with facts — far from being thus contradicted, 
it met with universal admiration and praise. It is a history, the author 
of which Almighty God saved by a special protection from innumerable 
dangers, that we might have in him an unexceptionable witness of the 
entire fulfilment of the divine prophecies concerning the temple and 
city of Jerusalem. In a word, it is both an authentic and admirable 
record, which, though very favorable to the cause of Christianity, cannot 
in the least be suspected of partiality for the Christians, since the writer 
was not a Christian, but a Jew constantly attached to his religion, his 
nation and his country. , 



NOTES. 323 



NOTE C— PAGE 126. 

ON THE NUMBER OF MARTYRS DURING THE GENERAL PERSECUTIONS 
OF THE CHURCH. 

What we have related of the persecutions of the church during the 
first ages, plainly shows that the multitude of those who were put to 
death for the cause of the Christian faith, was immense. Still Gibbon, 
in his 'Decline and fall of the Roman Empire,'' c/i. xvi, maintains that 
the number of martyrs was not considerable, nor their courage aston- 
ishing. The following additional quotations from ancient sources, will 
show at once, it is hoped, the falsity of his assertions, and the accuracy 
of our statement. For the sake of brevity, we shall confine our remarks 
to the first, fifth and tenth persecutions. 

For the first persecution, besides Tertullian and other Ecclesiastical 
writers, we have the grave and contemporary Pagan historian Tacitus, 
who writes thus: "An immense multitude (muliitudo ingens) of Chris- 
tians were convicted, not, indeed, upon clear evidence of their having 
set the city (of Rome) on fire, but rather on account of the hatred of 
the whole human race. To their sufferings Nero added mockery and 
derision. Some were covered with the skins of wild beasts, to make 
dogs devour them ; others were crucified ; and many, covered over with 
inflammable matter, were lighted up, when the day declined, to serve as 
torches during the night." (Tacit. Annal., lib. xv, n. 44.) 

With regard to the fifth persecution (which Gibbon modestly calls a 
mitigated one), merely to mention the martyrs of Lyons, Ado of Vienna 
says in his martyrology (28th of June), that St. Irenaeus, bishop of that 
city, suffered martyrdom with an exceedingly great multitude. An an- 
cient epitaph, inscribed on a curious Mosaic pavement in the great 
church of St. Irenaeus at Lyons, says that the number of the Martyrs 
who died with him, amounted to the number of 19,000, besides women 
and children. St. Gregory of Tours writes that St. Irenaeus had, in a 
very short time, converted to the Christian faith nearly the whole city 
of Lyons, and that with him were butchered almost all the Christians 
of that populous town ; in so much that streams of blood flowed through 
the streets : Tania muUitudo Christianorum jiigulata est, ut per plateas 
flumina currerent de sanguine Christiano; (Hist. Franc. I. i. c. 29.) St. 
Eucherius writes on the Martyrs of Lyons in the like manner ; and 
Eusebius, speaking in more general terms of the same persecution, 
says : " When Severus raised a persecution against the church, there 
were illustrious testimonies given by the combatants of religion in all 
the churches every where;" {Eccl. Hist. libr. vi. c. 1.) So much for 
the mitigated persecution of Septimius Severus. 

The same Eusebius relates more at large the tenth persecution, the 
atrocities of which he had witnessed with his own eyes. To the texts 



324 NOTES. 

and facts which we have quoted from him, page 126, we will subjoin the 
following, also taken from his Ecclesiastical History, book VIII, accord- 
ing to the English edit. Philad. 1834. 

Ch. 6. "Innumerable multitudes were imprisoned in every place, 
and the dungeons formerly destined for murderers and the vilest crimi- 
nals, were then filled with bishops, and presbyters (priests), and dea- 
cons, readers and exorcists ; so that there was no room left for those 
condemned for crimes. But, when the former edict was followed by 
another, in which it was ordered that the prisoners should be permitted 
to have their liberty if they sacrificed, but persisting, they should be 
punished with the most excruciating tortures, who could tell the num- 
ber of those martyrs in every province, and particularly in Mauritania, 
Theba'is and Egypt, that suffered death for their religion ?" 

Ch. 8. "In Egypt, thousands, both men and women, and children, 
despising the present life for the sake of our Savior's doctrine, sub- 
mitted to death in various shapes. Some, after being tortured with 
scrapings and the rack, and the most dreadful scourgings, and other 
innumerable agonies, which one might shudder to hear, were finally 
committed to the flames ; some plunged and drowned in the sea, others 
voluntarily offering their own heads to the executioners, others dying 
in the midst of their torments, some wasted away by famine, and others 
again fixed to the cross. Some, indeed, were executed as malefactors 
usually were ; others, more cruelly, were nailed with the head down- 
wards, and kept alive until they were destroyed by starving on the 
cross itself.'' 

Ch. 9. " But it would exceed all power of detail to give an idea of 
the sufferings and tortures which the Martyrs of Theba'is endured. . . . 
And all these things were doing not only for a few days, or some time, 
but for a series of whole years. At one time, ten or more ; at another, 
more than twenty; at another time, not less than thirty, and even sixty; 
and again, at another time, a hundred men with their wives and little 
children were slain in one day, whilst they were condemned to various 
and varied punishments. We ourselves have observed, when on the 
spot, many crowded together in one day, some suffering decapitation, 
some the torments of flames ; so that the murderous weapon was com- 
pletely blunted, and having lost its edge, broke to pieces ; and the exe- 
cutioners themselves, wearied with slaughter, were obliged to relieve 
one another. Then, also, we were witnesses to the most admirable 
ardor of mind, and the truly divine energy and alacrity of those that 
believed in Christ. For, as soon as the sentence was pronounced against 
the first, others rushed forward from other parts to the tribunal before 
the judge, and, most indifferent to the dreadful and multiform tortures 
that awaited them, openly declared that they were Christians." 

Ch. 12. " In Pontus and other countries of Asia, the martyrs en- 
dured torments that are horrible to relate. Some had their fingers 



NOTES. 325 

pierced with sharp reeds thrust under their nails. Others were roasted 
by masses of melted lead. . . . Some were suspended by the feet, and a 
little raised from the ground, with their heads downward, were suffo- 
cated with the ascending smoke of a gentle fire kindled below. . . .Others 
were roasted on grates of fire, not to kill immediately, but torture them 
with a lingering punishment. ... It is impossible to tell the great and 
incalculable number of those that had their right eye first dug out with 
the sword, and then seared with a red hot iron ; those too, whose left 
foot was maimed with a searing iron ; after these, those who in different 
provinces were condemned to the copper mines, not so much for the 
service, as for the contumely and misery they should endure. Many, 
also, endured conflicts of other kinds, which it would be impossible to 
detail; for their noble fortitude surpasses all power of description. In 
this the magnanimous confessors of Christ that shone conspicuous 
throughout the whole world, every where struck the beholders with 
astonishment, and presented the obvious proofs of our Savior's divine 
interposition in their own persons." 

Is not all this more than sufficient to overthrow at once the whole 
system of Gibbon concerning the Christian martyrs ? The sceptical 
author has himself perceived it very well ; and hence his anger against 
Eusebius. 

Lactantius has fewer words, but is not less positive than Eusebius on 
the excessive cruelties and ravages of the persecution of Diocletian. 
" Though I had," says he, " a hundred mouths and tongues, with an 
iron breast, it would be impossible for me to describe the various and 
horrid tortures that were inflicted on the guiltless christians, throughout 
the provinces of the empire." (Be Morte persec. n. xvi.) 

Sulpicius Severus, who lived in the same century, though a little later, 
expresses himself in the same manner on the present subject. The 
following are his words, in the 2d book of his Hist. Sacr. : " Under 
the empire of Diocletian and Maximian, a most rigorous persecution 
arose, which made frightful ravages in the church for ten years in suc- 
cession. During that period, nearly the whole world was stained with 
the blood of the holy martyrs. Never was the earth more depopulated 
by any war, than by this persecution ; nor did the church ever obtain a 
greater triumph, than when it could not be conquered by a continual 
slaughter which lasted ten years." Diodetiajio et Maximiano imperan- 
tibus, acerbissima persecuUo exorta, guce per decern continuos annos ple- 
bem Dei depopulata est. Qua tempestate omnis fere sacro martyrum 
cruore orbis infectus est. . . Nullis unqudm magis bellis mundus exhaustus 
est : negue majore ungudm triumpho vicimus, gudm guum decern annorum 
siragibus vinci non potuimus. 

There is yet extant a medal of Diocletian with this inscription: "The 
name of Christians being annihilated ;" Nomine Christianorum deleto. 
This indeed was asserting what had never happened ; still, what an 

28 



326 NOTES. 

imnjense quantity of blood must have been shed, to make the persecu- 
tors believe that they had obliterated the Christian name, and destroyed 
a religion which filled the whole empire ! 

After such unexceptionable testimonies, which surely suppose the 
number of Martyrs to have amounted to millions, how ridiculous and 
absurd must the assertions of Gibbon appear, when, besides frequently 
contradicting himself, he maintains : first, that there were not more than 
fifteen hundred or two thousand martyrs in the persecution of Diocletian; 
secondly, that their sufferings ought to be ascribed to a cause different 
from that of religion, and their fortitude to mere human motives, such 
as pride, ambition and desire of glory ; thirdly, that their tortures only 
existed in the imagination of the monks of latter ages ! Indeed, was 
Gibbon serious, when writing these things, or did he not rather intend 
to trifle with his readers ? In how deceitful and shameful a manner 
does he endeavor to answer and oppose the most authentic monuments 
of antiquity ! 

1st. He conceals, omits, alters, or calls in question the strongest pas- 
sages of ancient historians, which are contrary to his system ; a com- 
modious way indeed to get rid of the most forcible proofs, when they 
cannot be met with solid argument. 

2d. He impeaches the veracity, or at least tlie accuracy of Tacitus 
in the passage above quoted, under the pretence that Tacitus had not 
seen what he relates : as if ocular demonstration were the only means 
of acquiring the knowledge of facts, and as if Tacitus could not be 
perfectly acquainted with an event quite notorious in its nature, which 
happened in Rome where he wrote his Annals, and a few years only 
before he began to write ! But, if the principle be true that the testi- 
mony of the eyes is requisite to know and surely transmit historical 
events, what credit, we ask, can possibly be given to any part of Gib- 
bon's work, since the facts there recorded, are supposed to have hap- 
pened many centuries before Gibbon was born ? What right has an 
inconsistent and infidel author to claim the least reliance on his word, 
whilst he himself so boldly discredits the testimony of a grave, judi- 
cious and renowned historian ? 

3d. He appeals to the well known moderation of Trajan, Marcus 
Aurelius, and other such ])rinces, to exculpate them from the guilt of 
having been persecutors. Some of those emperors, we admit, did not 
enact laws against Christianity ; but they at least suffered the ancient 
laws to be executed, and themselves sometimes carried on the persecu- 
tion, as we learn from Eusebius (Ecd. Hist. lib. in, iv and v), St. 
Justin and Meliton, (in their ^poZog.), and Phny the younger {Epist. ad 
Traj.) Moreover, what does their supposed moderation prove against 
the violence of the persecutions raised by Nero, Septimius, and others? 

4th. Gibbon insists on the small number of Christians who were 
juridically condemned. Small it may have been, but how many, how 
very many more perished every where, without the formahty of a judicial 
sentence, as ancient historians testify ! 



NOTES. 327 

5th. He emphatically adduces a sentence of Origen, which says that 
the number of martyrs was inconsiderable ( Contra Celsum, lib. iii, 
n. 8). But he ought to have added likewise what comes next in 
Origen, and shows his true meaning, viz. that there always remained 
more Christians alive, than had perished during the persecution, " (Jod 
being unwilling," says he, " that the Christian society should be de- 
stroyed." Hence the small number of martyrs spoken of by this 
Father, is to be understood relatively to the number of the survivers ; 
which does not favor the system of Gibbon, nor contradict our state- 
ment, the less so, as Origen wrote this before the persecutions of De- 
cius, Valerian and Diocletian, the most cruel and bloody of all. 

6th, Eusebius positively testifies that he was an eye-witness to the 
multitude, the sufferings, and the constancy of the martyrs of Theba'is 
and Egypt;* Gibbon calls the fact in question — which of the two ought 
to be believed ? 

* Gibbon, to elude the difficulty, contents himself with saying that the term used 
by Eusebius may signify either that he had seen or that he had heard. We will give 
the original text, and place by its side the Latin translation of the learned Henri de 
Valois, who will be acknowledged to have known (.Jreek at least as well as Gibbon, 
and who translates another word of the context by the very strong expression, 
oculis nostris conspeximus : 

'ia-rop»<Tuuiv /g Kcit cthro) ivr) tZv Nos quoque cum in illis partibus dege- 

' ' - cl ' ^ renins, quam plurirnos acervatim uno 

TOTrm ymfAivci, ttkhovc a^poa>;^ K^ra ^,.g . ^\.^^ ^^^-^^^^^^ ^^pi^^ Iruncatos, alios 

/uisiv yi/nipiV To/f juiv tji? xs^jtAxc utto- vero flammis traditos vidimus 

Touiiv vTTOUiivMTdLi, Tovg Si Tiiv Slot. Quo quidem tempore mirabilcm imprimis 

Tuaar TiuiaoL^v aninii ardorem, vereque divinam virtu- 

TTvpo; Tiy.wpt V . ...... ^^j,, gj alacritatem eorum qui in Chris- 

• -^ • • On KAi ^AUfA^a-tu'Ta'TW tum Dei crediderant, ocuiis nosfris con- 

opfxYiv, S-s/itv Ti w? u.Xi)^Z? SuvAfxty Kcti speximus. 
TrpcB-ujuictv rZv tU rov Xpta-rov too 
©lou TreTTto-Trjx.oTaiv <ruv(a>pZy.iy . — Lib, 
VIII. cap. 9. 

In the two following passages, Eusebius has employed the term of which we are 
speaking. The candid reader will decide on the meaning of the author. — In the first, 
speaking of the statue erected iti Cssarea Fhilippi to our Savior by the wonian 
mentioned in the Gospel, he says; 

"Vuiin Si Kxi ik yijuac, U KAi oUs/ Mansit porro (the statue) ad nostra us- 

n ~ ' t' ' , - ^~ que tempora: nosque adeo urbem illam 

TTupcLKct^HV iTTiS^/Ay^c-xwct; AvTovi Tj) Tn^ressi, i/jsam conspeximus Nee vero 

TTOKU. Ka/ ^±vfji.!tT^'ov 0-jSiv reus TTa- mirandum est Gentiles a Servatore nostro 

i-» ^y l"^«^, «',«^=^u<^i„^^, m-^r^ rr-ru bcneficiis affcctos hfEC prsstitisse ; cum 

K^l ir s^rwv «.sp>jT«9-jvT*c Trpzi Tov et Apostolorum Petri ac Fauli, Christique 

2aT«/30? «/^wV, TAUT* TTiTTOi-AKiycn OTS jpsius pictas imagines, ad nostram usque 

;c*i TwV d^03-T3Xa)V auToD Ta? s<;t0V2t? memoriam servatas in tabulis viderimus. 
YldLVKov KUt Hirpou, x*/ adiTOv S» tou 
X/J/fTTou, Sia. yjODixaTuiv iv ypA<pid? cra- 
^o/jLiVit? la-rcpyta-a.y.iv. — L. VII, C. 18. 

The second passage is still more to the point: relating the sufferings of certain 
martyrs in Phoenicia, Eusebius uses the following words: 

. . . oU yi-ivouivoi? icAl ctvro'i Quse cum gererentur, nos ipsi prasentes 

< / ' '^ ~ / a</crumiis; ubi et divinam potentiam Ser- 

7rs/)<H^5v, ^ oTrmicct jov ^fxAp^rvpov^ivov ^^^^..^^ j^^g^^j j^^^ Christi, cui tunc mar- 

2ai;TH/)i? >i/uZv avTOv Sii lyi(rou Xpitrrov tyres testimonium perhibtbant, prtesen- 

T«v ^iictv Suvctuiv iTriTTApovTUV, iViipyZc tem et semetipsam manifeste rpartyribus 

TS ^br^v T.K fxdprvpT,y l7nS,!KVv<r^v exhibentem pe^speximus 

ia-Topiirx/iAiv. — Lib. VIII, cap. 7. 



odb NOTES. 

7th. In order to weaken the overwhelming authority of the same 
Eusebius, and also of Lactantius, the English sophist calls the former a 
courtier, and the latter a rhetorician ; as if rhetoric or the court had 
any thing to do with the present subject, and could have deprived these 
illustrious writers of their ears, eyes, learning and judgment. Surely, 
if such angry and preposterous accusations be once admitted, there is 
at once an end of historical knowledge. The truth is, that Gibbon, 
being an enemy to the church of Christ, chose rather to fall into absurd- 
ities, than permit her quietly to enjoy the lustre thrown around her by 
the multitude and constancy of her martyrs. 

Many other reprehensible assertions against the Christian Religion, 
her tenets and her ministers, are to be found in the work of Gibbon ; 
although equally destitute of proof, it is not our object here to discuss 
them. We have said enough to show that this author is, at least in what 
regards Christianity, unworthy of credit, and a real infidel, who covers, 
but cannot conceal his hatred against our holy religion with the veil of 
affected moderation and learning. Hence it is most deplorable, that a 
work so well calculated to instil the poison of scepticism and infidelity, 
should be so much read, praised and recommended in Christian and 
enhghtened countries. Will any literary advantage, derived from some 
beauties of style, ever compensate so pernicious a result ? 

NOTE D.— PAGE 148. 

ON THE ATTEMPT OF THE EMPEROR JULIAN TO REBUILD THE 
TEMPLE OF JERUSALEM. 

That this attempt entirely failed, and that its failure was not a natu- 
ral event, is so certain, and so well proved, that it can be denied only 
by one who is ready to deny every thing. In the first place, the fact is 
related by a great number of contemporary writers, viz. St. Gregory 
Nazianzen, in the year immediately following the event, ( Orat. v. contr. 
Julian.)^ St. John Chrysostom, in several parts of his works, especially 
his first, fifth and sixth Discourses on the Jews, where he appeals to 
eye-witnesses yet living; St. Ambrose, in his 40th Epistle, written 
A. D. 388, to the emperor Theodosius; Rufinus, in his Eccles. Hist. 
(6. I. c. 37, etc.); Philostorgius, the Arian, (6. vii, c. 14); Theodoret, 
the celebrated bishop of Cyre, (6. in, c. 20); Socrates, (b. in, c. 20); 
Sozomen, who says that many were still alive who had seen the splen- 
did prodigy, (6. v, c. 22); etc. 

This unanimous testimony of the Ecclesiastical historians is corrobo- 
rated by that of the Jews and Gentiles. Rabbins Gans-Zemach and 
Gedaliah relate the fact with its principal circumstances; the latter 
especially, is clear, positive, and the more deserving of credit, as he 
transcribed what he wrote from the annals of his nation. Libanius, a 



NOTES. 329 

friend and perpetual admirer of Julian, speaks in two places of earth- 
quakes and dreadful accidents which had lately happened in Palestine. 
Julian himself, in one of his letters, confesses that he attempted to raise 
the Temple of the Jews from its ruins, and cannot help mentioning 
the insurmountable obstacles he met with, which obliged him to give 
up the enterprise. 

Above all, we have the express testimony of Ammianus Marcellinus, 
another heathen and contemporary author, who writes thus in the 23d 
book of his History : " Whilst Alypius, assisted by the governor of the 
province, urged with vigor and diligence the execution of the work, 
fearful balls of fire frequently breaking out near the foundations, several 
times burned or scorched the workmen, and rendered the place inac- 
cessible. The terrible element continuing in this manner obstinately to 
repel every effort, the undertaking was abandoned." Ciim itaque rei 
fortiter instaret Alypius, juvaretque provinciae rector, metuendi globi 
flaramarum prope fundamenta crebris assultibus erumpentes fecere 
locum, exustis aliquoties operantibus, inaccessum ; hocque modo elemento 
destinatius repellente, cessavit inceptum. — Amm. lib. xxiii, c. 1. 

To such a mass of evidence what can be opposed, and what is really 
opposed by Gibbon and other infidels? Do they adduce against the 
fact just related, any thing, I do not say evident, but even plausible; 
for instance, the contradictory statement of some historians worthy of 
credit ? By no means ; they merely appeal to the silence of some 
ancient authors who thought it unnecessary to mention the wonderful 
event. But, when was it eve^- admitted that the silence of a few, or 
even of many, could destroy or even weaken the positive assevera- 
tion of others among whom collusion was utterly impossible, of numer- 
ous and learned, contemporary and unexceptionable vouchers? What 
can we believe in the annals of nations, in the transactions of human 
life, in courts of judicature, etc. if, in order to obtain sufficient evi- 
dence of a fact, the express attestation of a host of witnesses is required? 
This is certainly a strange rule of criticism. Nor is there less fallacy 
and absurdity in the affected doubts of our modern infidels, in their 
usual resource of a may-be or perhaps,, '\v\ their vague charges of exag- 
geration, fanaticism, christian credulity, and the like : — what have 
such charges to do with an event equally important and notorious, 
with a fact openly proclaimed and recorded by a m.ultitude of writers, 
at a time when innumerable witnesses were still alive, and when, had 
it not really taken place, it would have been related by none, by none 
have been believed. 

Let us then conclude, with the learned Warburton, in his dissertation 
on this subject, that the defeat of Julian's attempt by tire and earth- 
quakes, stands forth in a full blaze of evidence, and is as incontestable 
as any event mentioned in history. Either it must be admitted, or we 
must fall into the most extravagant scepticism, and yejegt altogether the 
28* 



330 NOTES. 

exploits and conquests of Alexander, Julius Caesar, Charlemagne, 
etc., which indeed are not so well substantiated as the event in ques- 
tion. 

But if, admitting the existence of the fact, infidels deny, or like the 
same Gibbon, call in question its being a real miracle, this new paradox 
is as easily refuted as the former. For it is impossible that any sincere 
mind should not perceive a supernatural intervention of God and a 
derogation from the ordinary laws of this visible world in the event 
now before us, whether we consider it in its moral or in its physical 
circumstances. 

In the first place, it is true that earthquakes, and the eruption of balls 
of fire are often the mere consequences of the ordinary laws of nature, 
and do not, of themselves, suppose or demonstrate any particular design 
of the providence of God. But, when these various phenomena come 
all together and unexpectedly, just at the moment in which a great and 
religious object is to be obtained, or an impious attempt to be defeated, 
there can be no doubt that they are a special manifestation of the divine 
will and power, expressly made by the Almighty for the above pur- 
poses. To deny this, would be to deny the wisdom and providence of 
God in the moral government of the world, and, with equal impiety 
and absurdity, to substitute in their stead a ridiculous chance or a blind 
necessity. 

These evident truths being presupposed, let us examine the peculiar 
tendency and circumstances of Julian's exertions towards the rebuildwg 
of the Jewish Temple. Since its irreparable and entire overthrow had 
been foretold both in the Old and New Testaments, Julian, by under- 
taking to rebuild it, bade defiance to Heaven itself, and was inclined, 
could he once succeed, to bring the charge of falsehood and imposture 
on those sacred prophecies. If then Almighty God, just at the moment 
when the intended work was to be begun, prevented it by tremendous 
earthquakes and eruptions of fire, though these effects might, to some, 
appear natural in themselves, who can doubt but that so singular a con- 
currence of the malicious attempt and the obstacles opposed to it, 
should be attributed to a supernatural intervention ? What sincere 
mind will not, on beholding the Christian Religion, as it were, protected 
by the very elements, conclude that the Sovereign Lord of nature is 
also the founder and preserver of Ciiiistianity ? 

Moreover, all the physical circumstances which accompanied the 
event, concurred to prove it a real and most splendid miracle. Inde- 
pendently of the fact that there had never been a volcano in Palestine, 
we learn from Ammianus Marcellinus that the balls of fire came out of 
the earth near the foundations of the Temple — at repeated times — with 
a sort of deUberate intention to subdue the persevering obstinacy of the 
workmen, and, after consuming several of them, rendered the place 
inaccessible. According to Rabbin Gedaliah, a great earthquake took 



NOTES. 331 

place, and a terrible fire melted the iron instruments, and burned a great 
number of Jews. According to Rufinus and Theodoret, porticos under 
which the workmen retired, fell by the violence of the earthquake, and 
crushed them to death, whilst others were devoured by fire on the site 
of the Temple. According to St. Gregory Nazianzen, Socrates, Sozo- 
men, etc. a brilliant cross appeared in the sky, and smaller crosses 
were imprinted on the garments of the spectators, etc. 

Wlio will not acknowledge in all this something manifestly above the 
laws of nature ? Who can explain, by those laws, why the balls of 
fire burst forth from the foundations, at the very moment when the 
Temple was begun, and whenever it was resumed; why the destructive 
element directed its whole fury against the workmen and the Jews, and 
not against other persons ; and why it did not cease its attacks, until 
the enterprise was entirely abandoned ? How did it happen that the 
shaking of the earth overthrew the porticos, where many workmen 
were assembled, and not other buildings in the city ? Why no fissures 
and chasms were left in the ground, like those formed by natural earth- 
quakes and volcanoes ? Why those crosses, great and small, etc. etc. — 
Did nature ever produce effects like these ? Was not the finger of God 
visible in every circumstance of this awful event ; and does not the 
man who voluntarily shuts his eyes against such light, deserve to be 
abandoned with the Apostate Julian to his own obduracy, as to an 
equally just and rigorous punishment ? 

NOTE E .— P AGE 223. 
ON mahomet's pretended miracles. 

Although Mahomet, on several occasions, disclaimed the power of 
working miracles, still he maintained that the Almighty did wonderful 
things in his favor, and his followers also ascribe to him a great number 
of prodigies of the most extraordinary nature ; for instance, that the moon 
was divided into two parts, one of which came down into the sleeve of 
the prophet, by whom it was sent back to heaven ; — that fountains 
sprung forth from his fingers ; — that, whilst he was travelling through 
the country, the trees respectfully saluted him, &c. ; but, who does not 
see that all these things are mere foolish stories, quite unworthy of 
having the God of majesty for their author, besides being totally unsup- 
ported by credible testimonies or by any proof whatever? For, they 
were either blindly adopted upon the bare word of Mahomet, or forged 
only after his death ; most of them not being found even in the Koran, 
but in the Snnna, a fabulous and ridiculous record of somewhat later 
date, which holds among the Mussulmen the same standing that the 
Talmud holds among the Jews. 

The most famous of those prodigies is the voyage of Mahomet to 



332 NOTES. 

the highest heaven. Of this he continually boasted ; this he adduced 
as the strongest proof of his favor with God, and, after his example, 
several Arabian authors relate it v^'ith the utmost gravity. 

They say that, during a certain night, the wonderful mare Al-Borak, 
upon which the ancient prophets usually rode, transported Mahomet 
from Mecca to Jerusalem, whence he was, by the help of the Archangel 
Gabriel and of a ladder of light, taken up, through an immense distance, 
to the summit of heaven, before the throne of the Almighty, there to 
receive his instructions from God himself. Most admirable were the 
things which he saw in his journey thither, and on his way back; 
among others : 1st, the stars as big as the mountains of Arabia, and 
fastened to the first heaven by golden chains, (which shows, by the by, 
how learned a scholar and astronomer Mahomet was!) 2d, a cock, 
whose head reached the second heaven, though distant from the first 
where the cock stood, about ten or twelve times the distance from the 
moon to the earth ; 3d, an angel so tall and large, that it would have 
taken seventy thousand days to walk from one of his eyes to the other; 
4th, another angel who had seventy thousand heads ; each head having 
seventy thousand faces ; each face, seventy thousand mouths ; each 
mouth, seventy thousand tongues; and each tongue being able to speak 
seventy thousand languages, of which he made use to praise Almighty 
God, etc. Mahomet returned in the same manner, and with the same 
rapidity in which he had gone to heaven, the whole voyage having been 
completed in the short space of a few hours. (See Univers. Hist, com- 
posed by a body of learned Englishmen, Paris edit. 1782, vol. xli, p. 
92 — 116, where are found references to numberless writers, Abulfeda, 
Gagnier, Prideaux, etc. — Anquetil, Precis de I'Histoire Univers., vol. iv. 
inSvo.p. 249—253.) 

Tales, not only so unworthy in everj' respect of being compared 
with the miracles of Christ and his disciples, but even so ridiculous 
and absurd, found admirers among the enthusiastic Arabs. Still, it 
must be observed that they were not believed by all the Mahometans ; 
nor did the followers of Mahomet support their preaching by the au- 
thority of his pretended miracles, but by force of arms. The use of 
their swords, aided on one side by the impulse of ambition, corrupt 
nature and fanaticism, on the other, by the weakness of the Greek and 
Persian empires at that period, was the real and only cause of the rapid 
progress of their religion. (See again Univers. Hist, same vol. xli, p. 
45, 46; — Annales du moyen age, vol. iv, last pages ; — Lebeau, Hist, du 
Bas. Empire, livr. 56, n. 31, 32; — Bergier, Theolog. Diction, articl. 
Mahomeiisme. 

As to the Koran, which the Mussulmen give also as a proof of the 
divine mission of their prophet, we have already observed that, with 
the exception of a glowing style and some beautiful moral maxims, it 
is, according to all persons of good sense, nothing but a miserable rhap- 



NOTES. 333 

sody. The Mahometan doctors themselves confess that it is full of 
perplexing difficulties and contradictions, which they endeavor to recon- 
cile by admitting a distinction between its various articles, some, they 
say, being abrogated, and some being destined to abrogate the others ; 
but, unfortunately for their purpose, the abrogating articles, instead of 
being, as they certainly ought to be, later, are on the contrary more 
ancient than those to be abrogated. 



NOTE F. — PAGE 248. 

ON THE ANSWER OF POPE ZACHARY TO A CONSULTATION OF THE 
FRENCH. 

By some authors and critics of later times, (Le Cointe, Ann. Fran- 
cor.; — Feller, art. Childeric III ; — Beraut-Berc. ad ana. 752, etc.) the 
fact of Pope Zachary's being consulted about the accession of Pepin, 
has been called in question, but we think without sufficient reason. It 
is thus related by Eginard, an almost contemporary writer: "Burcard 
(a bishop) and Fulrad (first chaplain of the palace), were sent to Rome, 
for the purpose of consulting Pope Zachary concerning the kings who 
were then in France, and who, having merely the name of kings, did 
not enjoy any portion of the royal power. The answer was : ' It w^ere 
better that he should be king, in whom the sovereign authority resided.' " 
Missi sunt Burcardus et Folradus Romam ad Zachariam, ut consulerent 
Pontificera de causa regum qui illo tempore fuerunt in Francia, qui 
nomen tantum regis, sed nullam potestatem regiam habuerunt; secutum 
est responsum : melius esse ilium regem, apud quem summa potestatis 
consisteret. — Eginard. Annal. Franc. The same is recorded in sub- 
stance by the authors of many annals of those times, Fuld., Metens., 
etc. ; by the continuator of Fredegaire and others (apud Duchesne, vol. 
I, y. 773, 796). From these it plainly appears that the fact in question 
is expressly asserted by a great number of contemporary or nearly con- 
temporary writers. To reject the unanimous testimony of so many 
and so respectable annalists, seems to be rather unreasonable criticism, 
there being no certain proof of their having wanted either sincerity or 
correct information on that point. 

This being presupposed, it would be still more unjust to blame the 
answer of Pope Zachary. In fact, no one can fairly doubt that, among 
the northern nations of Europe, the crown was originally elective, as 
Robertson has well proved in his preliminary discourse on the history 
of Scotland. It had indeed become hereditary among the French, 
owing to the uncommon ability of their first leaders ; but, since the last 
kings of the family of Clovis had, by their indolence and incapacity, 
brought contempt upon themselves, it was natural to expect that the 



334 NOTES. 

French lords, in order to procure a worthy sovereign to the nation, 
would revive the ancient mode of succession to the throne. 

On the other hand, the exercise of the royal authority had, for a long 
series of years, entirely devolved on the French dukes of Pepin's 
family; they alone carried the whole burden and discharged all the 
duties of sovereignty at home and abroad ; whereas the last Merovin- 
gian kings had accustomed themselves, generally speaking, to be satis- 
fied with the easier duty of managing their private household. This 
was certainly an excellent reason for the French to reassume, in such 
circumstances, the ancient mode of electing their sovereigns, which had 
not yet suffered a very long interruption, and, by a very proper use of 
their right, to confer the royal title and prerogatives on such persons 
among them as exercised the royal power with so much glory and 
utility for the state. Since moreover the whole nation professed an 
explicit attachment and respect for the Apostolic see, it was surely 
again the duty and the interest of Pepin to have his election confirmed 
by the Pope. 

Zachary, in his answer, did not endanger in the least the laws of 
wisdom and justice. In declaring that it was better to confer the title 
of king on that person who was already in possession of the sovereign 
authority, he merely expressed a fact and a maxim which, far from dis- 
turbing the good order of the state, tended to re-establish it by the 
adoption of a measure equally prudent and decisive : "melius esse ilium 
(vocari) regem, apud quern sunwia potestatis consisteret." Had the de- 
cision of the Pope and the conduct of Pepin left every thing as before, 
there would have remained in France, two sovereigns, the one nominal, 
the other real, contrary to the fundamental laws of that kingdom and 
to the just wishes of the nation. 

NOTE G.— PAGE 250. 

ON THE TEMPORAL DOMINION OF THE POPE. 

Among the different temporal sovereignties which exist in the world, 
there is none so evidently irreprehensible in its origin and formation, 
zs that of the Pope. Here we see neither artful intrigues, nor sedition 
and revolt, nor unjust attacks and usurpation; but we behold the lib- 
erality of Christian kings and emperors, united with a series of singular 
events, whose coincidence led the way to the addition of temporal 
power to the spiritual authority v/hich the Sovereign Pontiff had always 
exercised. 

It is a fact of public notoriety, and placed beyond the possibility of a 
doubt, that the Popes, for many years, and especially in the first part of 
the eighth century, made every exertion to preserve to the court of 
Constantinople its possessions in the West (see Anastasius, In Papam 



NOTES. 335 

Greg. II. et Steph. II; Thomassin, Discipl. de VEgl. part iii, book i, 
c. 29, vol. in, p. 199 et seg.) They incessantly endeavored, by the ex- 
ercise of their great influence, to maintain the Italians in their alle- 
giance to the Greek emperors, and, by embassies and entreaties, to 
procure from the Greek emperors the assistance which the Italians 
needed in order to repel the repeated attacks of the Lombards. But 
those blind and wicked princes, instead of affording the relief so much 
desired, rather inci'eased the public misery by tyranny and oppres- 
sion. 

Thus, finding implacable enemies both in the barbarians and in their 
own sovereigns, the people, driven almost to despair, began to sigh ar- 
dently after a new and better order of things. The eyes of all were 
turned towards the Pope, as their only refuge and the common father of 
all in distress. In this state of desolation, the Sovereign Pontiffs, unable 
any longer to resist the eagerness of multitudes flying into their arms 
for protection and refuge, and destitute of every other means, applied 
to the French, who alone were both willing and able to defend them 
against the Lombards. 

The sequel is known ; and we shall not repeat here what Pepin 
and Charlemagne did for the people of Rome, and especially for 
the Pope with regard to his temporal dominion ; but we will ask, 
what can we find to censure either in the conduct of the French 
monarchs, or in that of the Roman people ? It is a principle laid down 
by civilians, and founded on the law of nations, that he who conquers 
a country in a just war not undertaken for the former possessors nor 
in union with them, is not bound to restore to them what they would 
not, or could not, protect and secure. Such precisely was the case with 
Italy at that time. The Greeks had lost their right to their possessions 
in that country, by suffering them to be taken or laid waste by the 
Lombards, without sending succor to defend and protect them. Those 
countries, therefore, by the claim of conquest in a just war, belonged 
to Pepin and Charlemagne, who bestowed them on the Popes. On the 
other hand, the Roman people, abandoned to barbarians, had a right, 
when the Greeks refused to afford them relief, to seek it from others, 
and form themselves into a new form of government. This they did, 
by choosing, under the protection of the French, to be governed by him 
who, besides being the common father of the faithful, had been their 
only support in their distress. 

" II n'y a rien," says Count de Maistre, " de si evidemment juste 
dans son origine que cette souverainete extraordinaire. L'incapacite, 
la bassesse, la ferocite des souverains qui laprecederent ; I'insupporta- 
ble tyrannic exercee sur les biens, les personnes et la conscience des 
peuples; I'abandon formel de ces memes peuples livres sans defense a 
d'impitoyables barbares ; le cri de I'occident qui abdique I'ancien mai- 
tre ; la nouvelle souverainete qui s'eleve, s'avance et se substitue a 



336 NOTES. 

I'ancienne sans secousse, sans revolte, sans effusion de sang, poussee 
par une force cachee, inexplicable, invincible, et jurant foi et fidelite 
jusqu'au dernier instant a la faible et meprisable puissance qu'elle allait 
remplacer ; le droit de conquete enfin, obtenu et solennellement cede 
par I'un des plus grands hommes qui aient existe, par un homme si 
grand que la grandeur a penetre son nom, et que la voix du genre hu- 
main I'a proclame grandeur au lieu de grand : tels sont les titres des 
Papes, et I'histoire ne presents rien de semblable." {Du Pape, vol. i, 
liv. II, ch. VI ). 

This truth is expressed in a recent history of the Greek empire, with 
the same elegance, perspicuity and energy of style, as follows : "A 
quel titre Copronyme revendiquait-il une souverainete abandonnee, ou 
quels droits pretendait-il conserver sur des peuples delaisses, qui des 
long-temps ne connaissaient plus I'autorite imperiale ni par sa protec- 
tion ni par ses bienfaits ? Les empereurs avaient abandonne Rome aux 
barbares ; et qui I'avait defendue, qui I'avait sauvee ? L'histoire nomme 
Leon, Gregoire, ou quelqu'autre de leurs successeurs ; et les peuples 
avaient reconnu pour maitres ceux qui s'etaient montres leurs peres. 
La puissance des Papes etait un fait, quand Pepin la reconnut comme 
un droit ; et jamais souverainete n'eut une origine plus juste et plus 
sainte." (Hist, du Bas. Emp., Paris, 1838, vol. i,p. 272, 273.) 

NOTE H.-PAGE 309. 

THE POPES OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 

Nothing in the history of the middle ages has been more frequently 
misrepresented and more grossly calumniated, yet nothing is more wor- 
thy of admiration, than the conduct of the Popes in the long struggle 
which they maintained against the depravity and tyranny of princes, in 
defence of religion and social order. It was truly the struggle of virtue 
against vice, of civilization against barbarism, of Christianity against 
the powers of darkness. At that time, whether the evil was owing to 
the invasions of new barbarians, to the feudal system, or to other causes, 
national and civil wars scarcely ceased one moment to lay waste the 
whole face of Europe. Nations oppressed by their sovereigns had no 
other resource than the protection, and sovereigns who wished to act as 
tyrants, no other check than the authority of the Pope, which they 
generally acknowledged, not only in spiritual, but also in temporal con- 
cerns. The Pope then, in his proceedings against several emperors of 
Germany and some other princes, besides acting conformably to the 
common jurisprudence of those times, merely did what the state of 
society and the circumstances in which he was placed, evidently requir- 
ed of him as the head of the Christian family, and the common father 
of all the faithful. 



NOTES. 33' 



The better to understand this, we should revert to the epoch in which 
these important transactions took place. At a time when the nations 
of Europe closely adhered to the ancient faith, and preferred it to every- 
thing else, the profession of Christianity and submission to the Koman 
Church were conditions absolutely requisite in sovereigns, to exact and 
enforce obedience from their subjects. If a prince happened to revolt 
openly against the Catholic religion, or to incur, by his crimes, the 
penalty of excommunication, it was the prevailing opinion that the oath 
of allegiance given to him was no longer binding, since he had ceased 
to be the religious prince whom the nation had intended to acknowledge 
for its monarch.* " Thus," says Schlegel, " we hear the Saxons declare 
to the emperor Henry IV, that, the Christian name being profaned by 
him, they were unwilling to disgrace themselves by having intercourse 
with a prince who insulted and despised the religion of Christ ; and, 
since they had sworn fealty to him, on condition that he should reign 
for the edification and not for the destruction of the Church, were he to 
infringe this duty, they would think themselves no longer bound by 
their oath of allegiance to him. Shortly after, the same Saxons wrote 
to the Pope, to lay before his tribunal both their grievances and the 
crimes of Henry, and concluded their letter by saying that, such a 
prince being unworthy of the throne, they therefore requested the 
Sovereign Pontiff to make use of the authority which he had over the 
empire, and, through an assembly of the princes, to procure for them a 
worthier and better monarch." 

"Not long before this, the emperor Henry III had expressly acknow- 
ledged the Church jurisdiction, even in temporal affairs, when he wish- 
ed to oppose the rising pretensions of the king of Castile to the title 
of emperor. He referred the case to a council in which the legate of 
Pope Victor II presided (1055); the result of the consultation being 
gent to Rome, a sentence was passed; and king Ferdinand declared, in 
presence of the papal envoys, that he submitted to the decision of the 
Roman Pontiff. Hence, the high authority which Rome then exercised 
over kings and emperors, was grounded, first, on a political claim grow- 
ing out of the circumstances which accompanied the revival of the 
western empire ; and secondly, on the general opinion of that time 

* This is very well explained by Fenelon, who says: "Sensiin Catholicarum gentium 
haec fuit sententia animis alte impressa, scilicet, supremam potestatera commilti non 
posse nisi principi Catholico, eamque esse legem sive conditionem appositam popu- 
los inter et principem, ut populi principi fideles parerent, modo princeps ipse Catho- 
lieap. religioniobsequeretur. Qua lege posita, putabant omnes solutum esse vinculum 
eacramenti fidelitatis a tola gente prtestitum, simul atque princeps, ea lege violaia, 
Catholicag religioni contumaci animo resisteiet." 

Again : " Nihil est mirum si gentes Catholicffi religioni quam maxime addictae, prin- 
cipis excommunicati jiigum excuterent. Ea enim lege sese principi subditas fore 
pollicita; erant, ut princeps ipse catholicae religioni pariter subditus esset. Princeps 
vero qui, ob hseresim, vel ob facinorosam et impiarn regni administrationem, ab Ec- 
clesia excommunicaiur, jam non censetur pius ille princeps, cui tota gens sese com- 
mittere voluerat: unde solutum sacranienti vinculum arbilrabantur, {Fenelon. 
DUiert. dc aiutoritate Summi Ponlificis, c. xxix.) 

29 



338 NOTES. 

respecting the subordination of the temporal to the spiritual power." 
(Schlegel, Philos. II. p. 137; Theorie sociale de VEvangile, Memorial 
CathoLvolALp.S75.) 

" This doctrine," says Dr. Lingard, " hostile as it might be to the 
independence of sovereigns, was often supported by the sovereigns 
themselves. Thus, when Richard I was held in captivity by the em- 
peror, his mother Eleanor repeatedly solicited the Pontiff to procure his 
liberation by the exercise of that authority which he possessed over all 
temporal princes. Thus, King John Lack-land (whose excesses after- 
wards provoked against himself the animadversion of the church) 
invoked the aid of the same authority to recover Normandy from the 
king of France. At first, indeed the Popes contented themselves with 
spiritual censures : but in an age, when all notions of justice were mod- 
elled after the feudal jurisprudence, it was soon admitted that princes 
by their disobedience became traitors to God : that as traitors they 
ought to forfeit their kingdoms, the fees which they held of God : and 
that to pronounce such sentence belonged to the Pontiff, the vicegerent 
of Christ upon earth." (Lingard's Hist, of Engl. vol. in, of the third 
London edition, 2?. 35, note). 

It was in virtue of these and the like principles, as the same histo- 
rian relates, that Pope Innocent III did against King John Lack-land 
what St. Gregory VII had done against the Emperor Henry IV, when, 
solicited by Englishmen themselves, and moved by the recital of the 
repeated crimes and enormities of their sovereign, he absolved them 
from their oaths of fealty. This he did however, as the sequel 
showed, rather with the secret intention of terrifying the king and 
bringing him back to a sense of his duty, than with a real determina- 
tion to ruin him for ever. 

From these examples and testimonies, to which others might be 
added, we may form an accurate idea of the temporal power occa- 
sionally exercised by the Popes during the middle ages. They exer- 
cised it with the implicit consent of the sovereigns themselves, who 
frequently appealed to the decisions of Rome in their temporal debates, 
and none of whom scarcely ever complained, except (as was natural) 
the individual affected by the sentence. They exercised it only against 
sovereigns who depended, more or less, on the free choice of their nation 
and the acknowledgment of the Holy See, as was particularly the case 
with the German emperors. They exercised it only in cases of para- 
mount necessity, and after every other means, such as exhortations and 
remonstrances, had proved fruitless. They exercised it for the interest 
of the people and of society, at the request of the people themselves, 
and upon their earnest entreaties to be delivered from the sway of 
wicked, impious and tyrannical princes; but never through caprice, 
nor for personal interest ; on the contrary, those courageous and zealous 
Pontifis, a Gregory, an Alexander, an Innocent, etc. saw before them 



NOTES. 339 

the prospect of persecutions, sufferings, and every kind of danger, 
wiiich they had to encounter for the faithful discharge of their duty. 

Some Popes, it is true (though few in number), went further, and, 
acting in their secondary quality of temporal princes, raised troops, and 
took a more or less active share in the military operations of other 
sovereigns. But even that step was taken by them for laudable, and 
even for necessary purposes; viz. to recover or defend their own 
provinces, to repel unjust attacks, to support the independence of the 
Italian republics, and particularly to check the alarming progress of the 
Mussulmen. Can any fault be found with such conduct; and does it 
not rather afford a new proof of the truth, that the Popes have been the 
preservers of civilization and social order as well as of religion in 
Europe ? This indeed was the grand object which they had in view, 
and the end at which they continually aimed in the exercise of both 
their temporal and spiritual power. Having well understood the sub- 
lime office which they were called to perform, they discharged it with 
wonderful zeal and fidelity for the advancement of moral and religious 
principles. They protected the weak against their oppressors; re- 
stored peace and tranquillity among nations ; and, preventing the execu- 
tion of wicked designs, saved rising states and societies from the 
attacks of ambition, barbarity and licentiousness. Hence, in reading 
the history of the middle ages, it is impossible for a reflecting mind 
not to be struck with admiration at the sight of Christian Europe de- 
voted to one form of worship, ruled by one grand principle, forming as 
it were but one empire, and acknowledging one supreme head whose 
exalted duty it was to promote the reign of the gospel upon earth. 
(See Michaut, Histoire des Croisades, vol. iv, p. 98j 99; — Count de 
Maistre, Du Pape,part ii, c. v, x.). 

Not bitter censure, therefore, but real praise is due to the exertions 
of the Popes and to their acts of authority with regard to temporal 
princes. This is at length candidly acknowledged by different writers 
of the Protestant communion, after the example of Leibnitz in several 
of his works, especially in his first dissertation De Actorum Publicorum 
Usu. Very lately, two Protestant German authors, Hurter and Voigt, 
have published their excellent lives of Innocent III and Gregory VII, 
in which the character and the conduct of these great Popes are power- 
fully vindicated, and held up to the unqualified admiration of posterity. 
Let us hope that the clouds which have so long obscured this part of 
history, will be entirely dispelled by impartiality and truth ; and that 
full justice will at last be rendered to the Roman Pontiffs for their noble 
efforts to promote the spiritual and temporal welfare of society. 

There is another charge to be examined with regard to the Popes of 
the middle ages. We allude, not to the ridiculous tale of the pretended 
Popess Joan, which is now rejected by all learned critics, whether 
Catholics or Protestants, but to the more serious charge of the vices of 



340 NOTES. 

some Roman Pontiffs. It is true, a few among tliem gave great scan- 
dals to the Christian world in their private character and conduct; 
but it ought to be remembered at the same time, that, through a special 
protection of Divine Providence, the irregularity of their lives did not 
interfere with their public duty from which they never departed. The 
beneficial influence of sacred jurisdiction does not depend on the pri- 
vate virtue of the persons invested with it, but on their divine mission 
and appointment to feed the Christian flock. Christ did not say that 
there would never be scandals nor abuses, but that no power of dark- 
ness would ever prevail against his church ; nor did he promise personal 
sanctity to its chief pastors, but gave to them authority to teach and 
govern the faithful, and to the faithful, a command to follow their 
injunctions, without blindly imitating the bad example of a small 
number of them, whose conduct was not edifying. 

It is moreover certain that the number of bad Popes has been, by 
some writers, greatly exaggerated. There were very few of this char- 
acter, and those few lived, nearly all, in the tenth and part of the 
eleventh century, during which time the prevalence of civil factions 
in Rome obstructed the freedom of canonical election. Even during 
that period, there existed many excellent Popes ; men distinguished by 
their exalted virtues and intellectual endowments, patrons, in an emi- 
nent degree, of science, letters and the arts; and Roscoe does not hesi- 
tate to say, that " the Popes may in general be considered as superior 
to the age in which they have lived;" (Roscoe, Life of Leo the Tenth, 
vol. I, p. 53); and an American editor of statistics confesses that 
"most of the Popes were excellent men." These however are the 
sovereigns, whom a recent and an elementary author has, in his pro- 
found wisdom, thought proper to compare with the Mussulman caliphs, 
namely, with men who were either the most unjust conquerors, or the 
most indolent and insignificant monarchs that the world ever saw; where- 
as the greatest enemy of the See of Rome might be boldly challenged to 
show any where in history a succession of princes, who have been half 
as eminent for their virtues and piety, for their talents and learning, for 
their benefits to the great family of mankind, as the Roman Pontics. 



TABLES 



CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS, 



N. B. THE DATES MARK THE BEGINNING OF EACH REIGN. 



29^ 



342 



CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS. 



TABLE I. 1 


TABLE n. i 


ROMAN EMPE- 


PARTHIAN KINGS. 




ROMAN EMPE- 


PERSIAN KINGS, j 


B. C. RORS. 


ARSACIDES, 


A. D. 


RORS. 


SASSANIDES. 


31 


CaesarAugus- 
tus. 


Phraates. 


235 


Maximin 


in 226 Artax-! 
erxes I. 


A.D. 






238 


Gordian 


Sapor I. 


14 


Tiberius. 




244 


Philip. 




18 
37 




Artabanus. 


249 
251 


Decius. 
Gallus. 




Caligula. 


41 


Claudius. 




253 


^milian. 




50 
54 




Vologeses I. 


253 

260 


Valerian. 
Gallienus. 




Nero*. 


68 


Galba. 




268 


Claudius II. 




69 


Otho. 




269 





Hormisdas I. 


69 


Vitellius. 




270 


Aurelian. 




69 


Vespasian. 




275 


Tacitus. 


Varanes I. 


79 


Titus. 




276 


Probus. 




81 


Domitian. 




279 




Varanes II. 


90 
96 


Pacorus. 


282 
284 


Carus. 
Carinus and 




Nerva. 


98 


Trajan. 






Numerian. 




107 




Chosroes. 


284 


Diocletian h 
Maximian. 












294 




Narses. 


117 


Adrian. 




305 


Constantius 


Hormisdas II. 


133 




Vologeses II. 




Chlorus and 
Galerius. 






138 


Antoninus Pi- 
us. 




306 
310 


Constantine 
the Great. 


1 
Sapor II. 


161 


Marcus Aure- 




337 


Constantine 




lius. 






IL.Constans 
and Constan- 
tius. 




180 


Commodus. 




361 


Julian. 




189 
193 




Vologeses III. 


363 
364 


Jovian. 
Valentinian 




Pertinax. 


193 


Didius Juli- 






and Valens. 






anus. 




379 


Gratian— Val- 


Artaxerxes II. 


193 


Septimius Se- 






entinian 11, 


—Sapor III. 




verus. 






and Theodo- 
sius the Great 
— empire is 
divided. 


Varanes III. 


211 


Caracdlla. 




395 


Honorius (in 






214 




Artabanus. 




the West). 




217 


Macrinus. 


424 


Valentinian 












III. 




218 


Heliogabalus. 


Empire of the 


455 


Eight short 


For the conti- 






Parihians de- 




reigns {seep. 


nuation, see ta- 






stroi/edin226. 




179). 


ble 111. 


222 


Alexander 
Severus. 




475 


Romulus — 
Augustulus- 
Fall of the 
Western em- 
pire in 476. 





CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS. 



343 



TABLE III. 


TABLE IV. 




EASTERN OR 




EASTKRN OR 


ARABIAN CA- 


A. D. 


GREEK 


PERSIAN KINGS. 


A. D. GREEK 


LIPHS ; ABAS- 




EMPERORS. 




EMPERORS. 


SIDES. 


395 

399 

408 


Arcadius. 


Isdegerdes I. 


750 
754 




Aboul-Abbas. 
Abou-Giafar 
Almanzor. 




Theodosius li 




420 
440 
450 




Varanes IV. 
Isdegerdes II 


775 
780 


Leo Chazarus 
Constantine 


Mohammed — 
Mahadi. 




Marciau. 


457 


LeotheThra- 


Peroses. 




V, and Irene 




474 


cian. 
Zeno. 




785 
786 




Hadi. 
Aaron-al-Ras- 




488 
491 
518 




Balasces. 
Cabades. 


802 
809 
811 


Nicephorus. 


chid. 
Amin. 


Anastasius I. 
Justin I. 


Michael" i.*" 


527 


Justinian I. 




813 


Leo the Ar- 


Al-Mamon. 


531 

565 




Chosroes I. 


820 


menian, 
Michael II, 




Justin ii. 


578 


Tiberius II. 






the Stam- 




579 





Horsmis- 




merer. 








das III. 


829 


Theophilus. 




582 
590 
602 


Mauritius. 


Chosroes II. 


833 

842 
867 




Motasem. 


Mi'chaeVlII. ' 
Basil, the 


Phocas. 


610 


Heraclius. 






Macedonian. 


The succeed- 


62S 
632 




Siroes. 
Isdeger- 


886 


Leo the Phi- 
losopher. 


ing caliphs, 
devoid of per- 


........... 






des III, last i 


911 


Alexander. 


sonal merit. 






king. 


912 


Constantine 
VII,— Por- 


lost an im- 
mense portion 






Mahomet. 




phyrogenetes 


of their pow- 






Arabian Ca- 


919 


Romanus I, 


er, and retain- 






liphs. 




Leccapenes ; 


ed little more 


632 
634 




Abu-Beker. 
Omar. 




and Constant 
VII, contin- 


than a certain 
pre-eminence 
of honor. 




641 


Constantine 






ued. 




III.— Con- 




959 


Romanus II. 






stans II. 




963 


Nicephorus 




644 
656 




Othman. 
Ali. 

Ommiades. 


969 


Phocas. 
John Zimis- 
ces. 








661 
668 




Moavias. 


976 
1025 


Basil II— till 
Then, after a 




Constantine 




IV— Pogo- 


After his 




series of fif- 






natus. 


death, there 




teen empe- 




685 


Justinian II. 


was a rapid 




rors, who 




711 


Philippicus. 


succession 




just appear- 




713 


Anastasius 11 


of twelve ca- 




ed and dis- 




716 


Theodos. III. 


liphs during 




appeared. 




717 


Leo the Isau- 


the space of 




came 






rian. 


sixty-four 


1081 


Alexius Com- 




741 


Constantine 


years, termi- 




nenus, whose 






V,— Copro- 


nating in 




long reign 






nymus. 






belongs also 




744 




Mervan, the 




to the epoch 
of the Cru- 








last of the 






i 


Ommiades. 




sades. 





344 



CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS. 



TABLE V. 


A.D. 

soo 

814 
827 
836 
840 

855 
857 
860 
866 

871 
875 

880 
887 
889 
894 
900 

912 

919 
924 
936 
940 
946 
955 
9.59 
973 
975 
978 
983 


EMPERORS or GERMANY FROM 
THE REVIVAL OF THE WEST- 
ERN EMPIRE. 


KINGS OF ENGLAND FROM 
THE END OF THE HEP- 
TARCHY. 


House of France. 

Charlemagne. 

Louis I, the Debonnaire. 

Loth aire I. 
Louis II. 


Anglo-Saxon Ki7igs. 

Egbert. 
Ethelwolf. 

Ethelbald. 
Ethelbert. 
Ethelred I. 
Alfred the Great. 

Edward the Elder. 

Athelstan. 

Edmund. 
Edred. 
i:dwj. 
Edgar. 

Edward the Martyr. 
Ethelred II. 

_ 








Charles the Bald. 
Interregnum of three years. 

Charles, the Big. 
C Arnold. 
^Guy. 
( Lambert. 

Louis III 


House of Franconia. 
Conrad I. 

House of Saxony. 
Henry I, the Fowler. 


Otho I, the Great. 




Otho'if 




Otho III. 



CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS. 



345 



TABLE VI. 


A. O. 


EMPERORS OF GER- 
MANY. 


KINGS OF ENGLAND. 


KINGS OF FRANCE, 

from the begin- 
ning of the Ca- 
petian dynasty. 


KINGS OF SPAIN, 

from the time 
when Castile 
was erected in- 
to a kingdom. 


987 

99b- 

1002 

1016 

1017 

1024 
1031 
1035 
1039 

1042 

1056 
1060 
1065 
1066 

1066 

1072 

1087 


House of Bava- 
ria. 


.Anglo- Saxons, 
Continued. 


Hu^h Capet. 
Robert. 

Henry I. 


Ferdinand I. 

Sanchez. 

Alfonso I, in 
Castile, and VI, 
as king of Leon. 






Henry II, the 
Saint. 


Edmund Iron- 
side. 

Danish Kings. 

Canute the 
Great. 


House of Fran- 
conia. 




Conrad II. 




Harold I 


Henry III. 


Hardicanute. 

Saxon line re- 
stored. 

Edward, the 
Confessor. 


Philip I. 


Henry IV. 








Harold II. 

Norman dynasty. 

William I, the 
Conqueror. 











William II, the 
Red. 





CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 

OF 

REMARKABLE EVENTS 

AND 

ILLUSTRIOUS PERSONAGES. 



N. B. The dates in the first column, denote the years in which 
the events happened ; — those placed in the second column, mark the 
years in which the persons mentioned there, died. 



PART I. 



B. C. REMARKABLE EVENTS. 

31 Battle of Actium. 

29 Change of the Roman Re- 
public into an Empire. 

20 Roman Ensigns recovered 
from the Parthians. 

8 Temple of Janus shut. 
Birth of Christ. 

A. D. 

4 Conspiracy of Cinna. 

9 Defeat of Varus in Germany. 
15 German war. 

31 Conspiracy of Sejanus. 
33 Passion of our Savior — De- 
scent of the Holy Ghost — 
Foundation of the Church. 
43 Invasion of Great Britain. 
60 Conquest of Armenia. 
64 First persecution against the 

Church. 
70 Siege and destruction of Je- 
rusalem. 
79 Eruption of Mount Vesuvius. 
93 Second persecution. 
106 Third persecution. 
136 Final overthrow of the Jews. 
162 Fourth persecution. 
174 Miracle of the thundering 
legion. 



B. C. ILLUSTRIOUS PERSONAGES. 

Cicero — Sallust — Varro — Corne- 
lius Nepos, died about this time, 
or a little before. 

Young Marcellus died, b. c. 23 — 
Virgil, poet, 19 — Agrippa, gen- 
eral, 12 — Drusus, general, 9 — 
Horace, poet, 8 — Maecenas, 
statesman, 8. 

A. D. 

Livy, historian, died a. d. 17 — 
Ovid, poet, 17 — Arminius, gen- 
eral, Germanicus, 19 — Stra- 

bo, geographer, 25 — Livia, em- 
press, 29 — Velleius-Paterculus, 
historian, 31 — Phaedrus, fabulist, 
. . . — Quintus-Curtius, historian, 
. . . — Philo, Jewish doctor. . . 

Persius, poet, 62 — Lucan, poet 65 
— Seneca, philosopher, 65 — Cor- 
bulo, general, 66 — Suetonius- 

Paulinus — St. Peter and 

St. Paul, Apostles, 67. 

Pliny, the Elder, naturalist, 79 — 
Agricola, general, 93 — Josephus, 
historian, . . . — Quintilian, rhet- 
orician . . . — St. John, the Evan- 
gelist, 101 — St. Ignatius, bishop 
and martyr, 107 — Tacitus, his- 



348 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 



A. D. REMARKABLE EVENTS. 

193 The empire put up at auc- 
tion. 

197 Battle of Lyons between 
Severus and Albinus. 

202 Fifth persecution. 

226 Fall of the Parthian empire- 
New kingdom of Persia. 

235 Sixth persecution. 

249 Seventh persecution. 

257 Eighth persecution. 

260 Captivity of Valerian. 

262 Universal and dreadful pesti- 
lence. 

273 Destruction of Palmyra. 

275 Ninth persecution. 

286 Martyrdom of the Theban 
legion. 

303 Tenth and last general per- 
secution, the most bloody 
of all. 



ILLUSTRIOUS PERSONAGES. 

torian, . . — Pliny the Younger . . 
Juvenal, poet, 128-Plutarch his- 
torian, 140 — Justin, historian. . . 

St. Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna and 
martyr, 166 — St. Justin!^ martyr, 
167. 

Between 140 and ISO, died Ptole- 
my, the astronomer — Arrian, the 
historian, andLucian,the satirist. 

Galenus, physician, about 200. 

St. Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, 202 
— Clement of Alexandria, doc- 
tor, 216— Tertullian, about 220. 

Dio-Cassius, historian, about 230. 

St. Cornelius, pope and martyr, 
252 — Origen, 253 — St. Cyprian, 
archbishop of Carthage, 258 — St. 
Lawrence, martyr, 258. 

Plotinus, philosopher, 270 — Longi- 
nus, rhetorician, 273 — Zenobia, 
queen. 



PART IL 



312 Victory of Constantine over 
Maxentius — Triumph of 
Christianity. 

323 Licinius repeatedly defeated 
and finally overthrown by 
Constantine. 

325 First General Council, at 
Nice. 

330 Foundation of Constantinople 

351 Battle of Mursa. 

363 The attempt of Julian to re- 
build the temple of Jeru- 
salem defeated by a splen- 
did prodigy— His campaign 
and death in Persia. 

378 Battle of Adrianople. 

381 Second General Council at 
Constantinople. 

388 Defeat and death of the usur- 
per Maximus. 

390 Fault and repentance of The- 
odosius. 

394 Miraculous victory of Theo- 

dosius over Eugenius and 
Arbogastes. 

395 Final division of empire. 
402-5 Defeat of the Goths in Italy. 
406-9 Gaul and Spain invaded by 

the Vandals and other 
barbarians. 



Arnobius, rhetorician and doctor, 

about 320. 
Lactantius, historian and doctor, 

about 328. 

Eusebius, historian and controvert- 
ist, 338 or 339. 

St. Hilary, bishop of Poitiers, 368 
— St. Athanasius, Patriarch of 
Alexandria, 373 — St. Basil, arch- 
bishop of Caesarea, 379. 

Between 364 and 394, died the his- 
torians Eutropius, Ammianus 
Marcellinus and Aurelius Victor. 

St. Cyril, archbishop of Jerusalem, 
386 — St. Gregory Nazianzen, 
archbishop of Constantinople, 
389 — St. Gregory, bishop of Nys- 
sa, 396. 

Rufinus, statesman, 395 — St. Am- 
brose, archbishop of Milan, 397 
— St. Epiphanius, archbishop of 
Salamis, 403— St. John Chrysos- 
tom, archbishop of Constanti- 
nople, 407 — Stiiico, general and 
statesman, 408. 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 



349 



A. D. REMARKABLE EVENTS. 

410 Rome taken and plundered 

by the Goths. 
418 They settle in the southern 

provinces of Gaul. 

420 Beginning of the French 

monarchy. 

421 Roman troops entirely v^-ith- 

drawn from Great Britain — 
Inroads of the Picts and 
Scots. 

430 Africa subdued by the Van- 

dals. 

431 Third General Council, at 

Ephesus. 
43S Publication of the Theodo- 

sian code. 
451 Ravages of the Huns — Battle 

of the Catalaunian plains. 

451 Fourth General Council at 

Chalcedon. 

452 Pope St. Leo before Attila — 

Foundation of Venice. 

455 Rome plundered by the Van- 
dals. 

455 First establishment of the 
Anglo-Saxons in Great 
Britain. 

472-3 Spain conquered by the 
Visigoths. 

476 Fall of the Western empire. 



ILLUSTRIOUS PERSONAGES. 

Alaric, king of the Goths, 410 — Ru- 
finus of Aquileia, historian, 410 
— Prudentius, poet, 410 — Clau- 
dian, poet ; and Macrobius, his- 
torian, about 415. 

Sulpitius-Severus, historian, 420. 

St. Jerom, doctor of the Church, 
420 — Constantius, general and 
statesman, 421 — St. Augustine, 
bishop of Hippo, 430. 

Count Boniface, general, 432. 

Socrates, historian, about 440 — St. 
Cyril, patriarch of Alexandria, 
444— St. Peter Chrysologus, 
archbishop of Ravenna, 450 — 
Sozomen, historian, about 450. 

St. Pulcheria, empress, 453 — At- 
tila, king of the Huns, 453 — 
-(Etius, general, 456. 

St. Patrick, apostle of Ireland, 
about 460. 

Theodoret, bishop of Cyre, 458 — 
St. Leo the Great, pope, 461. 

Ricimer, general and statesman, 
472 — Hengist, Saxon chieftain, 
474 — Genseric, king of the Van- 
dals, 477. 



PART III. 



486-96 Conquests of the Franks 
in Gaul — Their conver- 
sion to Christianity. 
489-93 Ostrogoths in Italy. 
526 Tremendous earthquakes — 
Overthrow and rebuilding 
of Antioch. 
529 Justinian code. 
532 First use of the Christian era 

in Italy. 
534 Kingdom of the Vandals de- 
stroyed. 
551 Silk manufacture brought 

from India to Europe. 
553 Fifth General Council, at 

Constantinople. 
-553-4 Kingdom of the Ostrogoths 
destroyed— Battle of Cas- 
ilino. 

30 



St. Sidonius Apollinaris, bishop of 
Clermont, 482 — Evaric, king of 
the Visigoths, 484 — Odoacer, 
king of Italy, 493. 

Clovis, king of the Franks, 511 — 
Boetius, philosopher and states- 
man, 524 — Theodoric, king of 
the Ostrogoths, 526 — Amalason- 
tes, queen, 535. 

St. Fulgentius, bishop of Rusp, 
533. 

Dionysius Exiguus, the monk, 540 
— St. Benedict, founder of the 
Benedictine order, 543. 

Totila and Teias, kings of the Os- 
trogoths, 553-54. 



350 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 



A. D. REMARKABLE EVENTS. 

568 The Lombards in Italy — Ex- 
archate of Ravenna remains 
to the Greeks. 

576 Battle of Melitine— Signal 
defeat of the Persians. 

584 Extraordinary inundations in 
Italy. 

587 Conversion of the Visigoths 
to the true faith. 

592 Bloody revolutions in Persia. 

597 Anglo-Saxons begin to em- 
brace Christianity. 

602 Tragical end of the emperor 
Mauritius and his family. 

614-15 Ravages of the Persians 
in Syria and Palestine. 

622, et seq Exploits of HeracHus 
against the Persians. 

622 Rise of Mahometanism. 

634 Saracens invade Syria. 

636 Persia. 

637 Palestine. 

639 Mesopotamia. 

640 Egypf-- 

641 Burning of the Alexandrian 

library. 

651 Extinction of the second 
Persian monarchy. 

673 Invention of the Grecian fire 
— Siege of Constantinople 
during seven years. 

680 Sixth (GJeneral Council, at 
Constantinople. 

697 Northern Africa, subjugated 
by the Saracens — Destruc- 
tion of Carthage. 

711 Invasion of Spain — Battle of 
Xeres, which put an end 
to the kingdom of the Vis- 
igoths. 

718 Saracens defeated by land 
and sea, near Constanti- 
nople. 

732 Battle of Tours— New defeat 
of the Saracens — Germany 
receives the light of the 
Gospel. 

752 Merovingian family succeed- 
ed on the throne of France 
by the Dynasty of Carlo- 
vingian kings — Exarchate 
of Ravenna conquered by 
the Lombards. 



ILLUSTRIOUS PERSONAGES. 

Cassiodorus, statesman and doctor, 
562 — Procopius, historian ; Be- 
lisarius, general, 565 — Narses, 
general, 568. 

Alboin, kins of the Lombards, .574. 



Evagrius, historian — St. Gregory 
of Tours, historian, 595 — St. 
Gregory the Great, pope, 604 — 
St. Augustine, first archbishop 
of Canterbury, 607. 

Fortunatus, poet, 609. 

St. Isidore, archbishop of Seville, 
636 — St. Sophronius, patriarch 
of Jerusalem, 638. 

About the middle of the 7th cen- 
tury, four celebrated Mussulmen 
generals, Abu-Obeyda, Kaled, 
Amrou, Saad. 

Shortly after, four others, Moavias, 
Oucba, Zuheir, Assan. 



Callinicus, chemist, about 675. 



Pepin Heristel, statesman and ge- 
neral, 714. 



Venerable Bede, doctor and histo- 
rian, 735 — Charles-Martel, duke 
of France, 741 — Luitprand, king 
of the Lombards, 743— St. Za- 
chary, pope, 752. 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 



351 



A. D. REMARKABLE EVENTS. 



755 



756 



7b3 
774 



787 



796 



800 



Temporal dominion of the 
Popes. 

Foundation of the kingdom 
of Cordova in Spain. 

Excessive cold and heat. 

Extinction of the kingdom 
of the Lombards. 

Seventh General Council, at 
Nice. 

The Saxons subdued and 
the Avari prostrated by the 
arms of Charlemagne. 

Charlemagne crowned em- 
peror of the West. 



ILLUSTRIOUS PERSONAGES. 

St. Boniface, apostle of Germany, 
755. 



Pepin, king of France, 768. 



St. John Damascene, doctor of the 

Church, 780. 
Adrian I, pope, 795. 



Witikind, Saxon general, about 
800. 



PART IV. 



811 



827 



841 

857 



878 



912 



921 



939 



955 



971 



972 

987 



The emperor Nicephorus 
defeated and slain by the 
Bulgarians. 

End of the English Hep- 
tarchy. 

Battle of Fontenay. 

Commencement of the 
Greek schism. 

Eighth General Council, at 
Constantinople. 

King Alfred compelled to 
take refuge in a small 
island ; then defeats the 
Danes, and recovers his 
kingdom. 

Imperial crown transferred 
from the French to the 
German princes Nor- 
mans take possession of 
Neustria. 

Battle of Jonquera — Chris- 
tians of Spain defeated by 
the Moors. 

Battle of Simancas — Moors 
defeated by the Christians. 

Battle of Mersburg; Hun- 
garians completely defeat- 
ed by Otho I. 

Tremendous battle of Drista 
between the Greeks and 
the Russians. 

Fatimites in Egypt. 

Capetian kings in France. — 
Invention of clocks with 
balance. — Gothic Cathe- 
drals. 



Paul of Aquileia, historian, 801. 
Alcuin, doctor, 804. 



Eginhard, historian, about 842. 

Rabanus, archbishop of Mentz, 850 
— Lupus, abbot of Ferieres, doc- 
tor, 862 — Paschasius Radbertus, 
doctor, 865. 

Auastasius, the librarian, 880. 



Photius, first author of the Greek 
schism, about 892 — Alphonso 
III, kingof Oviedoin Spain, 912. 



RoUo, Norman chieftain, 932. 

Abderame III, king of Cordova, 
961 — St. Bruno, archbishop of 
Cologne and statesman, 965 — 
Flodoardus, historian, 966. 



Fernando Gonzalez, count, sove- 
reign of Castile, 979 — Mahomet 
Almanzor, Saracen general, 99*. 



352 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 



A. D. REMARKABLE EVENTS. 

1018 Normans in Italy. 

1022 Invention of the Gamut, or 
scale of musical notes. 

1040 First conquests of the Sel- 
jukian Turks. 

1035 The kingdoms of Castile 
and Arragon begin. 

1053 Renewal of the Greek 
schism by Michael Caeru- 
larius. 

1066 Battle of Hastings; Eng- 
land conquered by the Nor- 
mans. 

1085 Toledo taken from the Sara- 
cens. 

1095 Rise of the kingdom of Por- 
tugal. 



ILLUSTRIOUS PERSONAGES. 

Sylvester II, (Gerbert),pope, 1003. 
Guy, monk of Arezzo, about 1025. 
Fulbert, bishop of Chartres, 1029. 



St. Peter Damian, cardinal and doc- 
tor, 1072. 

St. Gregory VII, (Hildebrand), 
pope, 1085 — Lanfrancus, arch- 
bishop of Canterbury, 1089. 

Rodriguez Diaz-de-Bivar, (El Cid) 
general, about 1095. 



TABLE OF THE AUTHORS 

WHOSE WORKS, WHETHER QUOTED OR NOT IN THE COURSE OF THIS 
VOLUME, HAVE CHIEFLY SERVED FOR ITS COMPOSITION. 



Anquetil: Precis de VHisioire Universelle; Paris edition, 1818, 8 vols. 
Svo. 

Augustine (St.) De Civitate Dei, seventh volume of the Benedictine 
edition, folio and 4to.; Paris, 1679 and 1838. 

Beraut-Bercastel : Histoire de VEglise, 12 vols. Svo. edition of 
Pelier De Lacroix, Paris, 1830 ; the first five volumes have been 
used, especially the notes of the editor, and Discours sur le second 
age de VEglise, at the end of the twelfth volume. 

Bletterie (La): Histoire de Julien VJpostat, 1 vol. 12mo. 

Histoire de VEmperor Jovien, 1 vol. 12mo. 

BossuET : Discours sur VHistoire Universelle, avec la continuation, 
2 vols. 12mo. 

Butler (Alban) : Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and other principal 
Saints, the notes having been particularly useful ; London edit. 1756, 
4 vols. Svo. bound in 6 — and French edit., translation of Abbe Go- 
descard, 16 vols. 12mo., Lille, 1824. 

Clemencet : jirt de Verifier les dates, folio, Paris, 1770. 

Crevier : Histoire des Empereurs Romains, 12 vols. 12mo. Paris, 1763. 

Daniel (F.): Mrege de VHisioire de France, 12 vols. 12mo. Paris, 1751. 

Desormeaux : Abrege Chronologique de VHistoire d'Espagne, 5 vols. 
12mo. Paris, 1759. This author, generally exact in the historical 
part, is frequently wrong and unjust in his remarks. 

EusEBius : Ecclesiast. History, translated by C, F. Cruse, 1 vol. Svo. 
Philadelphia, 1834 ; and also, together with the Life of Constantine 
the Great, edit, of Henri de Valois (Greek and Latin), one vol. 
folio, Paris, 1659. 

Feller: Dictionnaire Histonq>ic, ou Histoire ahregee des homines celebres. 
The text of Feller being sometimes altered in the latest editions, 
those who desire to have it pure and untouched, should have re- 
course to the more ancient ones; v. g. to that of Lyons, 1821, 
12 vols. Svo. 

Flechier: Histoire de VEmpereur Thtodme-le-grand, 1 vol. 12mo. 

Fleury : Histoire Ecclesiastique, 25 vols. Svo. Nismes, 1779. 



354 TABLE OF AUTHORS. 

Frantin : Annales du moijen age, 8 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1825. 

G.*** (M.): Pouvoir du Pape au moyen age, 1 vol. 8\^o. Paris, 1839. 

Gahan : History of the Church, 1 vol. 12mo.; short, and having some 
little inaccuracies, yet generally full of sound information. 

Hutoire du Bas. Empire (A. M. SS. C. G.), 2 vols. 8vo. Paris, 183S. 

Histoire Universelle, (translated from the English), 125 vols. 8vo. Paris, 
1779 ; especially the vols. 21-26, and 41-46, have been used. 

Gregory of Tours (St.) Hisiorice Francorum libri decern; 1vol. small 
8vo. Paris, 1561. 

Jerom (St.): De Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis; in the Benedictine edition, 
Paris, 1706, part ii. of vol. iv. p. 101, et seq. 

JosEPHUs, the Jewish historian ; last books of his Antiquities, and the 
seven books of his Jewish War; English translation of Whitson, 
or French of Arnaud d'Andilly. 

Kent (Chancellor): vol. i. of his Commentaries on Law, second 
edition, 4 vols. 8vo. New^ York, 1832. 

Ladvocat: Dictionnaire Historique, 2 vols. 8vo., Paris, 1755. 

Lactantius : De Morte Persecutorum; to be found in the end of the 
sixteenth and last volume of the Lives of the Saints, Lille, 1824. 

Lebeau: Histoire du Bas. Empire; 29 vols. 12mo. Paris, 1757. This 
work, and that of Frantin, mentioned above, although generally 
excellent and very well written, are not to be implicitly relied on 
in the remarks and judgments which they contain about different 
transactions and personages ; their authors having too easily fol- 
lowed the prejudices of their time concerning certain historical 
points of great importance. 

Lefranc: Histoire du Moyen age, 1 vol. 12mo. 

Lingard : History of England; the two first volumes, 8vo. of the third 
edition, London, 1825. 

Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church; either the London 

edition, 1810, or the first American edition, Philadelphia. 

LoRiQUET : Histoire de France, 2 vols. 12mo. 

Maistre (Count de) : Dupape, 2 vols. 8vo. Lyons, 1819. 

MiGNOT : Discours Historique sur Mahomet et ses succcsseurs; at the 
beginning of Histoire de r Empire Ottoman, 1 vol. 4to. Paris, 1771. 

Orleans (F. D.) : Histoire des Revolutions d'Espagne, from the best 
Spanish historians, Mariana and others; 3 vols. 4to. Paris, 
1734. 

Histoire des Revolutions d'Angleterre, 4 vols. 12mo. Am- 
sterdam, 1766. 

Petavius : Raiionarium Temporum, 2 vols. 12mo. Paris, 1703. 

Roy : Histoire de Charlemagne, 1 vol. 12mo. 

SiDONius Apollinaris (St.): Epistola et Carmina, edit. Sirmondi, 
Paris, 1614. 

Socrates and Sozomenes, Greek historians, edit, of Henri de Valois, 
1 vol. folio, Paris, 1668. 



TABLE OF AUTHORS. 355 

Suetonius: Duodecim CcBsares, 2 vols. 8vo. which are the 98th and 
99th of the Collection of Classics, or Bibliotheca Latina Classica, 
Paris, 1828. 

SuLPiTius Severus: HistoricB Sacr<2 libn duo, 1 vol. ISmo. edit, of 
Mercier, Paris, 1659. 

Tacitus, the gravest, the most concise and energetic of historians, 
1 vol. 12mo. in the edition of Lallemant, 4 vols. 8vo. in the Collec- 
tion of Classics, from vol. 100 to 104. 

Tertullian : Apologeticus adversus gentes et de Prcescriptionibus ad- 
versus hcer.; I vol. 8vo. Paris, 1828. 

Theodoret, Greek historian, edit, of Henri de Valois, Paris, 1G73. 

Thomassin: Discipline de I'Eglise, 3 folios, Paris, 1725 ; particularly 
the first book of vol. ii, ch. xcii — cii. 

TiLLEMONT (Le Nain de): Hisioire des Emperews, 6 vols. 4to. Paris, 
1690 ; so learned, and so exact in his continual quotations of ancient 
authors, that, for the historical parts of which he treats, he can 
supply the deficiency of all other historians. 

Velleius Paterculus: Historic^ libri duo; 1 vol. 12mo. edit, of 
Abbe Paul, or the 125th vol. 8vo. in the Collection of Classics. 

VoiGT : Histoire du Pape Gregoire VII, translated from the German by 
Abbe Jager, 2 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1838. 
Many other works have been occasionally resorted to and consulted, 

which we purposely omit mentioning, because their enumeration would 

be of little or no utility to the reader. 



END or VOL. 



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